414. Fleischmannia Schultz-Bipontinus, Flora. 33: 417. 1850.
[For Gottfried F. Fleischmann, 1777–1850, teacher of Schultz-Bipontinus at Erlangen]
Guy L. Nesom
Annuals or perennials [subshrubs], 30–120+ cm (crowns fibrous-rooted). Stems erect, simple or sparingly branched (usually puberulent, hairs curled). Leaves cauline; opposite [alternate]; petiolate; blades 3-nerved, deltate-ovate or triangular-deltate [elliptic, rhombic], margins ± crenate to serrate, faces glabrous, sometimes gland-dotted. Heads discoid, in loose, corymbiform arrays. Involucres obconic to hemispheric, 2–4 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 20–30 in 2–4 series, 2–3-nerved, lanceolate to linear, unequal [subequal] (herbaceous to chartaceous). Receptacles flat or slightly convex [conic] (glabrous or with scattered hairs), epaleate. Florets 15–25 [10–50]; corollas bluish, pinkish, purplish, or white, throats narrowly funnelform (lengths 2.5–4 times diams.); styles: bases not enlarged, glabrous, branches linear-filiform. Cypselae prismatic, 5(–8)-ribbed, glabrous or sparsely hirtellous; pappi ± persistent or fragile, of [0 or 5–]20–40, barbellate bristles in 1 series. x = (4) 10.
Species ca. 80 (2 in the flora): se, s, c United States, Mexico, Central America, Andean South America.
Fleischmannia is "superficially similar to Ageratina, which is distinguished from it by the less well developed carpopodium (not stopper-like and sharply set off from the body as in Fleischmannia), usually imbricate involucral bracts, and base chromosome number of x = 17 (versus 4 or 10 in Fleischmannia)" (R. M. King and H. Robinson 1987).
