pale agoseris

Pale agoseris is a common, erect, perennial forb that appears as a rosette of basal leaves and a single flowering stalk (scape). It rises from a taproot and occasionally a branched thickened swelling of the base of the scape (caudex). It can be up to 36″ tall in areas with a long growing season, but in Minnesota it is usually 8″ to 18″ in height.

The leaves are stalked, linear lance-shaped to inversely lance-shaped, 2″ to 12″ long, and 1⁄32″ to 1 3 ⁄16″ wide. They may be erect or recline on the ground with the tips ascending. The leaf stalks (petioles) may be erect or lay flat on the ground. They are not purple. The leaf blades are long-tapered to a point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless or nearly hairless and somewhat covered with a whitish, waxy substance (glaucous). The margins are unlobed and flat, not wavy. Most leaves are untoothed though some may have a few scattered shallow teeth. The midvein is pale green and conspicuous.

The inflorescence is a solitary, medium-sized flower at the end of a single flowering scape. The scape is usually 8″ to 18″ in height. It is leafless and usually hairless, but sometimes minutely hairy near the top. There are no stalked glands on the scape.

The flower head is 1″ to 2″ wide. The whorl of modified leaves (bracts) at the base of the flower head (involucre) is inversely cone-shaped or bell-shaped. It is ⅜″ to ¾″ long in flower, ⅜″ to 1 3 ⁄16″ long in fruit. It is composed of 10 to 50 overlapping bracts (phyllaries) in 2 or 3 series. The phyllaries are sharply pointed and green. They sometimes have a reddish-purple median stripe. They often have purplish-black spots on the surface and purplish-black tips.

The flower head has 15 to 50 ray florets and no disk florets. The strap-like portion of each ray (ligule) is ¼″ to 1″ long, 1 ⁄16″to 3 ⁄16″ wide, and has 5 teeth at the tip. The flowering season is May to September but the flowering period of individual plants is short.

The fruit is a dry, one-seeded seed capsule (cypsela). The cypsela is ribbed, narrowly cone-shaped, and ¼″ to ⅝″ long. It tapers to a stout, 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ long, prolonged tip (beak). The beak is usually less than half as long as the body. There is a tuft of 15 to 125 white, 5 ⁄16″ to 11⁄16″ long barbed bristles (pappi) attached at the end of the beak.

8″ to 18″

Yellow

Prairie false dandelion (Nothocalais cuspidata) is a shorter plant, no more than 13¾″ tall. The leaf margins are often, but not always, wavy. It is found on dry prairies in sandy or gravelly soils.

Wet. Moist prairies, meadows, wetland edges, stream margins, and swales. Silty soil, clay, and other fine-textured soils.

May to September

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Common

Agoseris glauca
Matt Lavin