Rafinesque’s chicory [For Constantin Samuel Rafinesque, 1783–1840, naturalist and polymath who traveled widely in nineteenth-century America]

L. D. Gottlieb

Annuals, 15–150 cm. taprooted. Stems 1–3. erect. simple or distally branched (hollow), glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline; basal petiolate or sessile, blades oblong to oblanceolate, pinnately lobed (lobes broad or narrow); cauline sessile, sometimes auriculate clasping, distal smaller, becoming entire and bractlike. Heads (erect) borne singly (at ends of branches) or in open, paniculiform arrays. Involucres cylindro-conic, (4–)6–15+ mm diam. Calyculi of 8–14, spreading to reflexed, unequal bractlets (lengths to ¹/2 phyllaries). Phyllaries 7–20 in 1 series. linear-lanceolate, ± equal, margins scarious, apices acuminate. Receptacles flat, smooth, glabrous, epaleate. Florets 15–30; corollas white, sometimes with rose or purplish veins abaxially (outer surpassing phyllaries). Cypselae tan to mottled grayish brown, fusiform, 9–18(–20) mm, bodies tapering to beaks, ribs or ridges 5, outer usually with antrorse hairs or papillate or scaly indument, inner mostly smooth to cross-rugulose, glabrous; pappi (borne on small discs) ± persistent, of 5–21, white or sordid, ± plumose (at least proximally, barbs sometimes entangled) bristles in 1 series. x = 8.

Species 2 (2 in the flora): sw United States, nw Mexico.

Lower Taxa

• Rafinesquia californica Nuttall
• Rafinesquia neomexicana A. Gray