Lachnanthes caroliniana

Stems 3-10.5 dm, distally whitish villous-tomentose when young, becoming tawny-hoary. Leaves: basal leaves 15-45 × 0.5-2.1 cm proximally, shorter distally; cauline leaves shorter than basal, decreasing in size distally, becoming bracts in inflorescence. Inflorescences initially rounded, becoming open and corymbose after anthesis, each branch resembling a helicoid cyme. Flowers: tepals erect-spreading at anthesis, pale yellow, 7-9 × 1-1.5 mm, densely pubescent abaxially, persisting and incurving to form beak around fruit; stamens spreading at anthesis; filaments 8-10 mm; anthers yellow; style persistent, slightly exceeding anthers, 10-13 mm. Capsules globose or oblate, 3-5 mm diam. Seeds reddish brown, 2.5-3 mm diam., faintly wrinkled. 2n = 48.

Flowering mid--late summer. Wet, acid, often sandy soil of bogs, swamps, ditches, low areas in savannas and pinelands, margins of hammocks and pocosins; 0--600 m; N.S.; Ala., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., La., Md., Mass., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Va.; West Indies (Cuba).

Lachnanthes caroliniana is sometimes a serious weed in commercial cranberry bogs.

Stems stout, erect, 2-8 dm, nearly glabrous below, tomentose above; lvs erect, 3-10 mm wide, the lower to 4 dm, the cauline smaller or bract-like; infl dense, flat or rounded, 3-8 cm wide, densely woolly; fls 10-12 mm, dingy yellow, densely tomentose; sep lance-subulate, two-thirds as long as the linear-oblong pet; seeds 2-3 mm wide; reddish-brown. Swamps and pine-barren bogs; N.S. to Fla., La., and Cuba; disjunct in w. Va. and c. Tenn. July, Aug. (L. tinctoria; Gyrotheca t.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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