Silverling

Baccharis sessiliflora Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 125. 1803, not Vahl 1794

Shrubs, 100–300 cm (evergreen, loosely branched). Stems erect to ascending, striate-angled, glabrous or minutely scurfy, not resinous. Leaves present at flowering (not in fascicles); petioles to 7 mm; blades obovate or elliptic to rhombic, 20–60 × 8–40 mm, leathery, bases cuneate to attenuate, margins serrate (teeth 1–3 per side distal to middles, relatively broad), apices acute, faces glabrous, abaxial black gland-dotted (distal reduced, entire), adaxial eglandular. Heads (1–4, sessile or subsessile) in axillary glomerules scattered along branches. Involucres campanulate to obconic; staminate 4–5 mm, pistillate 5–6 mm. Phyllaries ovate to lanceolate, 1–4 mm, margins scarious, medians green, apices rounded or obtuse (sometimes purplish). Staminate florets 20–30; corollas 4–5 mm. Pistillate florets 15–25; corollas 3–4 mm. Cypselae 1.5–2 mm, 8–10-nerved, glabrous; pappi 8–9 mm.

Flowering Oct–Nov. Hammocks, moist woods, pine woods, swamps, swales, stream banks, ditches of inner dunes; 0–100 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C.

Found primarily on the Coastal Plain, Baccharis glomeruliflora is recognized by the evergreen leathery leaves with broad teeth, and the small axillary glomerules of heads.