Hoary Bowlesia

This is a South American species and a recent introduction in W. Pakistan. The plant is fairly common in the Rawalpindi area during the spring.

Annual, decumbent. Stems slender, glabrate to slightly stellate pubescent; hairs 8-rayed, stalks short or sessile. Leaves opposite, petiolate, palmately lobed, dorsal and ventral surfaces covered with stellate hairs, more numerous on the ventral surface. Umbels simple, 2-5 flowered. Involucre of a few scarious, white, lacerate bracts. Flowers small. Calyx teeth prominent. Petals greenish white to purple. Stylopodium conical; styles short; carpels densely stellate pubescent. Fruit ellipsoid to globose, c. 2 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, covered with stellate hairs, slightly cordate at the base, subsessile; ridges inconspicuous.

Distribution: South America, southern U.S.A.; introduced in Europe, W. Pakistan and New Zealand.

Fl. Per. March-April

Bowlesia incana R. & P. Fl. Per.
Bowlesia tenera Spreng. Syst. 1: 8S0. 1825.
Bowlesia geraniifolia Cham. & Schlecht. Linnaea 1: 382. 1826.
Bowlesia lobata sensu T. & G. Fl. X. Am. 1: 601. 1840. Not B. lobata R. & P. 1802.
Bowlesia incana f. crassifolia Urban in Mart. Fl. Bras. II 1 : 292. _ 1879.
Bowlesia incana f. tenera Urban in Mart. Fl. Bras. II 1 : 292. 1879.
Bowlesia septenlrionalis Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 31. 1900.
Plants prostrate to suberect, dichotomously branched, 1.2-5 dm. long or high, stellatepubescent to glabrate throughout ; leaves suborbicular in general outline, excluding the petioles 4-30 mm. long, 5-45 mm. broad, palmately 5-7-lobed, the lobes entire to dentate, stellatepubescent to glabrate; petioles 0.5-7 cm. long; peduncles 1-21 mm. long, shorter than the leaves; umbels 2-6-flowered; fruit sessile or subsessile, ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad, stellate-pubescent to glabrate, not glochidiate, the carpels depressed on the dorsal surface, the dorsal region inflated.
Type locality: Huanaco. Rondos &. Pillao. Peru, Ruiz b 1 Pavon.
Distribution: Texas to California, south to Sonora and Baja California; Oregon (on ballast); South America. (Abrams 3281, Heller 1493, 7435.)

Bowlesia incana is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common name hoary bowlesia. It is native to South America and the southeastern and southwestern United States as far north as Washington. It can also be found in Pakistan and New Zealand as an introduced species. It grows in many types of habitat. This is a small annual herb growing thin, spreading stems less than 60 centimeters long. The leaves are borne on long petioles and have multilobed rounded or kidney-shaped blades less than 3 centimeters wide. The green herbage of the plant is coated in fine white hairs. The inflorescences of yellow-green flowers appear in the leaf axils. The tiny inflated fruit is only 2 millimeters wide.