West Indian Chinchweed

Pectis capillaris DC. Prodr. 5: 99. 1836
Pedis taliscana H. & A. Bot. Beech. Vov. 296. 1837.
Pedis jaliscana Hemsl. Biol. Centr. Am. Bot. 2: 225. 1881.
Pedis Berlandieri > Pabneri A. Gray. Proc. Am. Acad. 21: 393. 1885.
Pedis capillaris paucicapitala Femald, Proc. Am. Acad. 33: 74. 1897.
An erect minutely puberulent or glabrate annual; stem 1-3 dm. high, diffusely branched above; leaves linear, mucronate, 2-5 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, scabrous-hirsutulous above, with prominent ribs beneath and 2-5 pairs of bristles below the middle; glands scattered or in the smaller leaves in a single row half way between the midrib and each margin; heads in the upper forks and terminal; peduncles 2-3 cm. long; involucre 4-5 mm. high, 3-4 mm. broad, turbinate; bracts about 5, acute or acuminate, purplish, keeled; ray-flowers 5; ligules 2-3 mm. long, yellow, tinged with purple outside; disk-flowers 5-10; corollas 3 mm. long; achenes 3 mm. long, short-hirsute or glabrate; pappus of 3-6 bristles about 4 mm. long, somewhat squamellate at the base, or partly of some minute squamellae, or in the ray-flowers the bristles only 1 or 2.
Type locauity: Near Las Bacas. Oaxaca.
Distribution: Chihuahua lo Jali:>co and Oaxaca; Panama.

Pectis schottii (Fernald) Milisp. Field Colunib. Mus. Tubl. Bot
3: 143. 1904.
Pedis elongata Sclwllii Fernald, Proc. Am. Acad. 33: 78. 1897.
An erect slender annual; stem paniculatcly branched, 3-4 dm. long, angled, scabrous or smooth; leaves linear-oblong, apiculate, 1-2.5 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide, with 3-5 pairs of bristles near the base, and but 2 rows of glands beneath; peduncles solitary, terminal or in the upper axils, 2-3 cm. long; heads nodding at first; involucre about 4 mm. high and 2.5 mm. broad; bracts 5, lanceolate, acuminate, bearing a few glands on the thickened midrib; rayflowers 5; ligules greenish-white, slightly tinged with purple, oblong, 1 mm. long; disk-flowers 3 or 4; corollas whitish; achenes fully 2 mm. long, linear-oblanceolate, sparsely pubescent or glabrate; pappus of 15 unequal rufescent scabrous bristles, dilated below, 1-2 mm. long.
Type locality: [Sercania, near] Maxcanii, Yucatan. Distribution: Known only from the type locality.

Pectis febrifuga H. van Hall, Ann. Hort. & Bot 4: 33. 1861.
Pedis linifolia Less. Linnaea 6: 709, in part. 1831. Not P.linifolia L. 1759. Pedis graveolens Klatt, Bot. Jahrb. 8: 46. 1887.
An erect annual; stem diffusely and dichotomously branched, 0.5-2 dm. high, angled, scabrous-puberulent on the angles; leaves linear or the lower lance-linear, 0.5-2 cm. long, 0.5-2 mm. wide, acute or mucronate at the apex, with 3-5 pairs of bristles at the base; glands in a single row near each margin and in the lower and broader leaves a few additional scattered ones; heads solitary in the forks of the branches; peduncles 1.5-3 cm. long; involucre 4-4.5 mm. high, 2-2.5 mm. broad, narrowly turbinate; bracts 5, oblong or lance-linear, acuminate or apiculate, obtusely carinate below; ray-flowers 5; ligules oblong, 1-1.5 mm. long, yellow, tinged with red; disk-flowers 6-13; corollas about 2 mm. long; achenes 2-2.5 mm. long, short-pUose on the angles; squamellae of the disk-flowers 5 (rarely 4 or 6), with a lanceolate lacerate base, ending in an awn longer than the corollas; those of the ray-flowers 2 or with an additional third, much shorter and subulate squamella.
Type locality: Curasao.
Distribution; Jamaica, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Saba; Costa Rica to Venezuela.

Pectis linearis, the West Indian cinchweed, is a summer blooming annual plant in the genus Pectis. Its floral region is generally Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.