Carolina Woollywhite

Morphologic distinctions between varieties of Hymenopappus scabiosaeus as treated by B. L. Turner (1956) fail for some specimens.

Biennials, 40–150 cm. Leaves: basal simple (5–20 mm wide) or 1(–2)-pinnate, 5–25 cm, lobes (3–)5–20+ × (1–)2–8+ mm; cauline 15–50. Heads (20–)40–100 per stem. Peduncles 1–5 cm. Phyllaries white to yellowish, 5–15 × 2–8 mm. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 20–80; corollas whitish, 3–5.5 mm, tubes 2–3 mm, throats funnelform, 1–3 mm, lengths ± 1 times lobes. Cypselae 3–5 mm, ± hirtellous; pappi of 14–18 scales 0.1–1 mm.

Hymenopappus scabiosaeus L'Her. Hymenop. 1. 1788
Rothia caroliniensis Lam. Jour. Hist. Nat. 1: 17. 1792. Hymenopappus laxifloriis L'Her.; DC. Prodr. 5: 658, as synonym. 1836. Hymenopappus caroliniensis Porter, Mem. Torrey Club 5: 338. 1894.
A leafy-stemmed biennial; stem 3-7 dm. high, angled, often pui-plish, glabrate or sparingly floccose, corymbosely branched; leaves alternate, the earlier ones oblanceolate, merely cleft or sometimes nearly entire; stem-leaves once or twice pinnatifid with linear or sometimes oblong divisions, 5-15 cm. long, sparingly floccose, green and glabrate above, grayish-floccose beneath; heads corymbose; involucre 7-8 mm. high, 10-15 mm. broad; bracts obovate, mostly bright-white; corollas ochroleucous ; tube about 2 mm. long; throat campanulate, 1.5 mm. long; lobes oblong, about as long as the throat; anthers and a part of filaments exserted; achenes obconic, 4 mm. long, short-hirsute; squamellae less than 1 mm. long.
Type locality: South Carolina.
Distribution: South Carolina to Kansas, Texas, and Florida.

Hymenopappus scabiosaeus, the Carolina woollywhite, is a North American species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It grows in the central and southeastern United States, primarily on the Great Plains an on the Coastal Plain of the Southeast. There are also isolated populations in Illinois and Indiana as well as in the state of Coahuila in northern Mexico.

Hymenopappus scabiosaeus is a biennial herb up to 150 cm (5 feet) tall. It produces 20-100 flower heads per stem, each head with 20-80 white disc flowers but no ray flowers.

Varieties Hymenopappus scabiosaeus var. corymbosus (Torr. & A.Gray) B.L.Turner - Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Coahuila Hymenopappus scabiosaeus var. scabiosaeus - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina