Nothocalais cuspidata

Plants 7-35 cm. Stems (peduncles) ebracteate. Leaves: blades linear-lanceolate, 7-30 cm, bases broadly attenuate, margins entire, plane or undulate, ciliolate, (apices acuminate) faces glabrous or villous. Involucres 17-27 mm. Phyllaries 13-34, often red-striped or dotted, lanceolate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous. Florets 13-80; ligules 15-25 mm. Cypselae brown, 7-10 mm, narrowed distally, not beaked; pappi of 40-80, intergradent, smooth to barbellulate bristles and ± subulate to setiform scales 8-10 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering Apr-Jul. Prairie pastures, slopes, hillsides, and ridges, in sandy, gravelly, or clay soils, various grassland associations; 300-2300 m; Alta., Man., Sask.; Ark ., Colo., Ill., Iowa, Kans., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Okla., S.Dak., Tex., Wis., Wyo.

Scapose perennial 5-35 cm; lvs crowded, narrow, 7-30 cm נ3-20 mm, long-acuminate, entire, the margins villous-ciliolate and often crisped; invol 17-25 mm, its bracts subequal or slightly imbricate; achenes 8 mm, strongly striate throughout, tapering slightly to the truncate beakless apex; pappus of numerous mixed capillary bristles and very slender, gradually attenuate scales; 2n=18. Prairies and other dry open places, often in gravelly soil; Ill. and Wis. to Mont., Colo., and Okla. Apr.-June. (Agoseris c.; Nothocalais c.)

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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