Leaves: petioles ¹/8-⁵/8 lengths of blades; blades 3-19 cm. Peduncles 8-64 cm in fruit, often dilated distally. Heads: vernal chasmogamous, autumnal cleistogamous. Cypselae tan to purplish, 6-10 mm. 2n = 46.

Flowering (chasmogamous) Mar-early Jun, (cleistogamous) Aug-Nov. Grassy, partially open areas in pine, pine-oak, or oak woods, often in disturbed sites; 2000-2500 m (to 3400 m in Mexico); Ariz., N.Mex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, and southward).

Plants of Leibnitzia lyrata with cleistogamous heads are encountered and collected much more often than those with chasmogamous heads.

The combination Leibnitzia lyrata proposed by G. L. Nesom (1995) appeared to be based on Chaptalia lyrata D. Don (an illegitimate later homonym) but was actually based on Gerbera lyrata Schultz-Bipontinus, which was cited in synonymy by Nesom.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous perennials, to 50 cm tall, scapose with several scapes, herbage tomentose, gray-green.

Leaves: Mostly basal, obovate, oblong, or oblanceolate in outline, lyrate, to 19 cm long, with the terminal lobe much larger than the few lateral ones, the margins slightly toothed to entire, bases abruptly contracted to the petiole, green and glabrate above, thinly white-tomentose beneath, the cauline leaves absent or much reduced.

Flowers: Heads large, with pink to purple rays, the heads 2-2.5 cm high, the rays strap-shaped, 3-toothed, and pistillate, disk flowers whitish, perfect, the corollas bilabiate, involucres strongly graduated, phyllaries lanceolate and acute, gray pubescent, appearing gray-green with purple nerves and tips, the heads borne singly on peduncles, the peduncles more or less enlarged below the heads.

Fruits: Achenes tan to purplish, fusiform, beaked. Pappus whitish or brownish, of copious, capillary bristles.

Ecology: Found in grassy, partially open areas in pine, pine-oak, coniferous forests, or oak woods, often in disturbed sites, from 6,500-9,000 ft (1981-2743 m); flowering May-October.

Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico; Mexico.

Notes: Two synonyms for this species: Chaptalia alsophila and Chaptalia leucocephala, can be found in the older texts, but currently are both considered to be the same, and are found under Leibnitzia lyrata. This species appears similar to a dandelion or an Agoseris from a distance, especially when fruiting, but is easy to distinguish by the leaves and loosely packed capillary bristles.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Leibnitzia is named for the German scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716), while lyrata means pinnatifid with the terminal lobe of the leaves more rounded and larger than other leaves.

Synonyms: Many, see Tropicos

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011