Lakeside daisy (Hymenoxys herbacea) COSEWIC assessment and update update status report: chapter 3

Species Information

Name and Classification

Scientific Name:

Hymenoxys herbacea (E.L. Greene) Cusick

Bibliographic Citation:

Cusick, A. W.  1991.  Rhodora.  93: 238-241.

A. Cronquist (in Gleason and Cronquist, 1991, page 864) also published the combination Hymenoxys herbacea (E.L. Greene) Cronquist, but Cusick’s publication predates that of Cronquist (Oldham, 1997)

Type Specimen:

“bank of Illinois Canal near Joliet”, 25 May, 1864.  Collector: filed at GH, no collector name but probable duplicate specimen at NY collected by W. Boott.

Synonyms:

Actinella scaposa Nutt. var. glabra A. Gray (Gray’s Manual of Botany, ed. 5, p. 263, 1867).
Tetraneuris herbacea E. L. Greene (Pittonia 3:269, 1896).
Tetraneuris acaulis (Pursh) Greene
Actinea herbacea (E.L. Greene) Robinson (Rhodora 10:  68, 1908).
Actinea scaposa (Pursh) Spreng. var. glabra (A. Gray) Cronquist (Rhodora 47:  403, 1945).
Hymenoxys acaulis (Pursh) Parker var. glabra (A. Gray) Parker (Madroño 10: 159, 1950).

Common Names:

Lakeside Daisy, Stemless Rubberweed (Bruce Peninsula) and Manitoulin Gold (Manitoulin Island)

Family Name:

Asteraceae, Compositae

Tribe Name:

Heliantheae

Common Family Name:

Sunflower family, Aster family

Major Plant Group:

Dicot Angiosperm

Description

Hymenoxys herbacea (E.L. Greene) Cusick, is a small perennial herbaceous plant that consists of one or more leafy rosettes each up to 10 cm in height (Figure 1). The mature leaves are dark green, moderately hairy and have a thick cuticle that is interrupted by numerous stomata. Rosettes persist throughout the winter and additional rosettes are produced vegetatively after the flowering season via rhizomatous growth and/or branching of the woody persistent stem (De Mauro, 1993). The floral buds of Hymenoxys herbacea form in the fall and bloom the following spring as a solitary golden inflorescence on a short stalk. In Canada, the plants flower from early May to early July (Johnson, 1984). The head is radiate with pistillate ray florets and perfect disc florets.

Figure 1. Illustration of Hymenoxys herbacea by Jack Wellington.

Figure 1.  Illustration of Hymenoxys herbacea by Jack Wellington.

Key descriptive features

Hymenoxys herbacea differs from its closest relative, H. acaulis var. acaulis, through the lack of glandular hairs on its leaves (Cusick, 1991).

Published descriptions

The original species’ description of H. herbacea is found in Gray (1867) under the synonym Actinella scaposa var. glabra. Other descriptions of the taxon, mostly written to indicate changes in nomenclature, are given by other authors, as described by Cusick (1991).

Similar plants in area

The most similar-looking species to H. herbacea on the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island is Coreopsis lanceolata L., from which H. herbacea can be distinguished by its shorter stature, yellow (vs. yellow-orange) petals and earlier flowering season (H. herbacea starts three weeks earlier than C. lanceolata). In addition, H. herbacea has only one flowering head per scape while C. lanceolata may have one to a few flowering heads per peduncle and the diameter of the flowering head of H. herbacea is smaller (4-6 cm) than that of C. lanceolata (6-8 cm) (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991).

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