The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California

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  • Up-to-date information about California vascular plants is available from the Jepson eFlora.

Names are linked to treatments from the Manual


Key to ERYNGIUM

N.B.: couplets are linked, e.g., 1. is linked to 1'.

  1. Plant prostrate or decumbent, producing roots, juvenile leaves at nodes; heads in racemes
E. racemosum
  1' Plant decumbent to erect, not rooting at nodes; heads in cymes
 
    2. Plant densely, finely hairy throughout; heads 5–7-flowered
E. constancei
    2' Plant glabrous (rarely sparsely hairy on leaves only); heads > 10-flowered
 
      3. Heads bright blue or purple; bractlets generally regularly 3-toothed at tip
E. articulatum
      3' Heads greenish white, sometimes faintly bluish; bractlets entire to deeply pinnately lobed but not regularly 3-toothed at tip
 
        4. Bracts and bractlets very rigid, margins generally entire, prominently thickened
 
          5. Inflorescence as a whole yellowish green; leaf generally sharply serrate to irregularly cut; coastal
E. armatum
          5' Inflorescence as a whole silvery green; leaf pinnately sharply lobed; n&c Sierra Nevada Foothills
E. pinnatisectum
        4' Bracts and bractlets ± flexible, margin generally sharply toothed, not thickened
 
          6. Bracts similar to bractlets, spines on outer side dense
 
            7. Leaf blades deeply pinnately lobed, >> petiole; Great Central Valley, adjacent foothills
E. castrense
            7' Leaf blades sharply serrate to sharply lobed, > petiole; Modoc Plateau
E. mathiasiae
          6' Bracts unlike bractlets, spines on outer side 0 or few
 
            8. Sepals pinnately sharply lobed or sharply toothed; s Great Central Valley, c&s Sierra Nevada Foothills
E. spinosepalum
            8' Sepals generally entire; North Coast Ranges, High Cascade Range, San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast Ranges, South Coast, Modoc Plateau
 
              9. Main stem 0, plant branching or spreading directly from basal rosette; basal leaves generally > branches; fruit scales subequal; High Cascade Range, Modoc Plateau
E. alismifolium
              9' Main stem branching 1–5 cm above basal rosette; basal leaves generally < branches; fruit scales generally unequal; North Coast Ranges, Great Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast Ranges, South Coast
 
                10. Petiole < leaf blade; fruit scales obtuse
E. vaseyi
                10' Petiole generally > leaf blade; fruit scales acuminate
E. aristulatum
                  11. Styles in fruit >> calyx; North Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay Area
var. aristulatum
                  11' Styles in fruit ± = calyx; San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast Ranges, Southwestern California
 
                    12. Plant stout, ascending or erect; bractlets sharply toothed
var. hooveri
                    12' Plant weak, spreading; bractlets entire
var. parishii


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