Small's Bogbutton

The favorite habitat of Lachnocaulon minus is the fluctuating shores of karst ponds where it may be aspect dominant along the edge of the maximum pool.

Herbs, short-lived perennial, solitary or cespitose, forming low domes of rosettes, 6--15(--20) cm. Leaves linear-triangular, 2--4 cm, apex narrowly acute to subulate. Inflorescences: scape sheaths shorter than principal leaves; scapes filiform, 0.3--0.4 mm thick, 4--5-ribbed, pilose from base to apex, with ascending hairs; mature heads dull gray-brown, globose to short-cylindric, 3--4 mm wide; receptacle copiously hairy, partly obscuring flowers (old heads may lose some hairs); involucral bracts soon reflexed, pale to dark brown, mostly ovate or broadly oblong, 1 mm, apex broadly acute, distal margins pilose, hairs translucent, capitate, abaxial surface distally pilose, hairs translucent; receptacular bracts pale brown to chestnut brown, broadly spatulate or pandurate, concave, 1(--1.5) mm, apex rounded or obtuse, abaxial surface pilose toward apex, hairs translucent; Staminate flowers: sepals 3, chestnut brown, base greenish, spatulate, blade concave, 1--1.5 mm, apex rounded or obtuse, abaxial surface pilose toward apex, hairs translucent; androphore yellow-white, narrowly obconic, as long as sepals, glabrous, rarely with apex hairy, hairs club-shaped, short; anthers 3, appendages 3. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3, pale, spatulate, concave, 1--1.5 mm, apex obtuse or short-acuminate, abaxial surface apically with translucent hairs; gynoecium 3-carpellate; stylar column pale, apex 3-cleft, appendages 3. Seeds deep clear brown, ellipsoid, 0.5 mm, apex apiculate, body longitudinally low-ribbed, ribs pale, transverse striae fine.

Ala., Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C.

Flowering summer--fall.

Sands and peats of pond edges, ditchbanks, lake shores, drawdowns or moist exposed seeps; 0--200m.

Lachnocaulon michauxii Kunth var. minor Chapman, Fl. South. U.S. ed. 3, 531. 1897; L. eciliatum Small

Lachnocaulon eciliatum Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 235, 1328. 1903
Stems abbreviated; leaves tufted, bright-green or olivaceous in age, linear-attenuate, 1-4.5 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide at the middle, sparingly ciliate; peduncles aggregate, 5-40, mostly very numerous and dense, 3-1 1.5 cm. long, pubescent; heads gray, globose, becoming somewhat elongate, 3-3.5 mm. in diameter; involucral bractlets light-brown, stramineous below, oblongobovate, obtuse, ciliate; receptacle pilose; receptacular bractlets light-brown, spatulate, not ciliate; staminate florets: sepals brown, united at base, obovate-spatulate or oblanceolate, obtuse, not ciliate, minutely pubescent at apex; anthers white, oblong; pistillate florets: sepals stramineous or subhyaline, very narrowly spatulate, wholly glabrous; style-appendages 3; stigmas 3, bifid; ovary subobovate, 3-locular; seeds ovoid, cancellate.
Type locality: On sandy shores, northwestern Florida (Curtiss 3022). Distribution: Sandy shores, northwestern Florida.

Lachnocaulon minus (Chapm.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 235, 1328
1903.
Lachnocaulon Michauxii var. minor Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. ed. 3. 531. 1897.
Stems short; leaves tufted, bright-green, linear-attenuate, 1-5.5 cm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide at the middle, sparingly ciliate; peduncles aggregate, 3-65, mostly very numerous, densely congested, 4-25 cm. long, densely long-pubescent; heads gray or grayish-brown, globose to cylindric, 3-4 mm. in diameter; involucral bractlets hidden, fuscous, obtuse, ciliate; receptacle densely long-villose; receptacular bractlets olivaceous-fuscous, obtuse, ciliate with relatively short hairs; staminate florets: sepals fuscous, olbong-obovate, connate at base, concave within, involute above, rounded-obtuse, ciliate with inconspicuous clavate hairs; pistillate florets: sepals very small (shorter than the receptacular hairs), hyaline, oblong-spatulate, obtuse, ciliate with inconspicuous hairs; style-appendages 3; stigmas 3, bifid; ovarjellipticor ovate-spheroid, 3-locular; seeds oval or ovoid, about 0.5 mm. long, apiculate, cancellate.
Type locality: Low pine barrens, Bristol, Liberty County, Florida (Chapman). Distribution: Moist soil, often on margins of ponds, on the Coastal Plain from North Carolina to Florida.