pale agoseris

(Agoseris glauca var. glauca)

Conservation Status
pale agoseris
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

N5? - Secure

SNR - Unranked

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

FACU - Facultative upland

     
  Midwest

FACU - Facultative upland

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

FACU - Facultative upland

     
           
 
Description
 
 

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 132 to 13 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 to ¾ long in flower, to 13 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 16to 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 long. It tapers to a stout, 1 32 to 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 1116 long barbed bristles (pappi) attached at the end of the beak.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

8 to 18

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

Yellow

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

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

 
     
 
Habitat
 
 

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

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

May to September

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

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

 
  5/24/2023      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Asteranae  
 

Order

Asterales (sunflowers, bellflowers, fanflowers, and allies)  
 

Family

Asteraceae (sunflowers, daisies, asters, and allies)  
  Subfamily Cichorioideae (chicories, dandelions, and allies)  
  Tribe Cichorieae (lettuce, chicory, dandelion, and salsify)  
  Subtribe Microseridinae  
  Genus Agoseris (mountain dandelion)  
 

Species

Agoseris glauca (pale agoseris)  
       
 

Subordinate Taxa

 
 

 

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
  Troximon glaucum  
       
 

Common Names

 
  pale agoseris  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Beak

A comparatively short and stout, narrow or prolonged tip on a thickened organ, as on some fruits and seeds.

 

Bract

Modified leaf at the base of a flower stalk, flower cluster, or inflorescence.

 

Caudex

A short, thickened, woody, persistent enlargement of the stem, at or below ground level, used for water storage.

 

Cypsela

A dry, one-chambered, single-seeded seed capsule, formed from a single carpel, with the seed attached to the membranous outer layer (wall) only by the seed stalk; the wall, formed from the wall of the inferior ovary and also from other tissues derived from the receptacle or hypanthium, does not split open at maturity, but relies on decay or predation to release the contents.

 

Glaucous

Pale green or bluish gray due to a whitish, powdery or waxy film, as on a plum or a grape.

 

Involucre

A whorl of bracts beneath or surrounding a flower or flower cluster.

 

Ligule

In grasses, a membranous appendage at the junction of the leaf and the leaf sheath, sometimes no more than a fringe of hairs. In flowering plants, the flat, strap-shaped, petal-like portion of the corolla of a ray floret.

 

Linear

Long, straight, and narrow, with more or less parallel sides, like a blade of grass.

 

Pappus

The modified calyx composed of awns, scales, bristles, or feather-like hairs in plants of the Asteraceae family.

 

Petiole

On plants: The stalk of a leaf blade or a compound leaf that attaches it to the stem. On ants and wasps: The constricted first one or two segments of the rear part of the body.

 

Phyllary

An individual bract within the involucre of a plant in the Asteraceae family.

 

Scape

An erect, leafless stalk growing from the rootstock and supporting a flower or a flower cluster.

 
 
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Habitat

 
    pale agoseris      
           
 

Plant

 
    pale agoseris   pale agoseris  
           
    pale agoseris   pale agoseris  
           
 

Flower Head

 
    pale agoseris      
           
 

Fruiting Head

 
    pale agoseris   pale agoseris  
           
    pale agoseris      
           
 

Leaves

 
    pale agoseris   pale agoseris  
           
    pale agoseris      

 

Camera

     
 
Slideshows
 
  Agoseris glauca
Matt Lavin
 
  Agoseris glauca  
 
About

Native perennial herb 8-50 cm tall, flower heads scapose, rays yellow, pappus of capillary bristles, achenes beaked, common in grasslands, sagebrush steppe, meadows, from low to high elevations.

 

 

slideshow

       
 
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