Erigeron vernus (L.) Torr. & A. Gray
Family: Asteraceae
Early White-Top Fleabane
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Biennials or short-lived perennials, 15-50 cm; rhizomatous, fibrous-rooted, caudices relatively thick and short, or elongate rhizomes, or appearing simple, sometimes producing rosulate offsets. Stems erect, sparsely strigose to strigoso-hirsute or villous, eglandular. Leaves mostly basal (persistent); blades narrowly to broadly oblanceolate to spatulate, 20-100(-150) × 4-25 mm (usually ± fleshy-thickened), margins entire or denticulate to mucronulate, faces glabrate eglandular; cauline mostly bractlike. Heads (1-)4-20(-25) in corymbiform arrays (from branches near apices). Involucres 3-4 × 5-11 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3(-4) series, usually sparsely hirsute to strigose, sometimes glabrous, eglandular, sometimes viscid. Ray florets 25-40; corollas white, 4-8 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 2.5-3.8 mm. Cypselae subterete, 1.2-1.6 mm, 4-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 16-25 bristles. 2n = 18.

Flowering (Mar-)Apr-Aug(-Oct). Moist to wet sites in sand or sandy clay or sandy peat, pine or pine-palmetto flatwoods and savannas, interdunal swales, road banks, ditches; 0-50 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.

Biennial or short-lived perennial 1.5-5 dm with a short subsimple caudex and rosulate offsets, glabrous or the stem sparsely appressed-hairy; basal lvs thick, oblanceolate to suborbicular, obtuse or rounded, 2-15 נ0.4-2 cm, denticulate; cauline lvs very few and small; heads 1-many; invol 3-4 mm, glutinous or sometimes sparsely hairy; disk 5-11 mm wide; rays 25-40, white, 4-8 נ0.5-1.3 mm; disk-cors 2.5-3.8 mm; achenes 4-nerved; pappus simple; 2n=18, ca 27. Sandy or peaty places, Sphagnum-bogs, and pine-barrens; coastal plain from Va. to Fla. and La.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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