Woolly Paperflower

In trans-Pecos Texas, Psilostrophe villosa has been collected within 10 km or so of the Rio Grande; it probably occurs in Mexico. Within 100 km or so of the New Mexico-Texas border, P. villosa and P. tagetina intergrade; B. L. Turner et al. (1988) treated P. villosa as P. tagetina var. cerifera.

Biennials or perennials (rarely flowering first year), 10–45(–60+) cm. Stems arachno-villous (gray to gray-green). Heads in ± crowded, corymbiform arrays. Peduncles (0.5–)1–3(–5+) mm. Involucres 4–5(–7) mm. Rays (2–)3(–5); laminae 3–4(–6) mm, spreading in fruit. Disc florets 5–8(–12). Cypselae usually glabrous, sometimes gland-dotted; pappi of 4–6 lanceolate to lance-subulate scales 2.5–3+ mm. 2n = 32.

Psilostrophe tagetina (Nuttall) Greene var. cerifera (A. Nelson) B. L. Turner

Psilostrophe villosa Rydb.; Britton, ^lan. 1006. 1901
Psilostrophe cerifera A. Nelson, Proc. Biol. See. Wash. 16: 21. 1903. Psilostrophe cerifera biennis A. Nelson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 16: 21. 1903. Psilostrophe biennis Hay, Miller & White, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 16: 186. 1903.
A biennial or short-lived perennial, scarcely woodj' at the base; stem 2-4 dm. high, loosely woolly, corymbosely branched; lower leaves oblanceolate, entire, or some pinnately 3-5-lobed, 2-10 cm. long, short-petioled, loosely villous, the upper ones smaller and sessile; heads several, corymbosely clustered; involucre about 5 mm. high, 3 mm. broad; ligules 3-4, light-yellow, turning darker or buff, 3-4 mm. long, 3-cleft about one third their length; diskcorollas 5-8, more or less ceriferous; achenes glabrous, linear; squamellae lanceolate, about half to two thirds as long as the disk-corollas.
TT»E locality: Kansas.
Distribution: Kansas to Texas and eastern New Mexico.