Heads 5–many-flowered; the flowers all tubular and perfect. Involucral scales in a single row, erect-connivent, with a few bractlets at the base. Receptacle naked. Corolla deeply 5-cleft. Achenes oblong, smooth; pappus of numerous soft capillary bristles.—Smooth and tall perennial herbs, with alternate often petioled leaves, and rather large heads, in flat corymbs. Flowers white or whitish. (An ancient name, of uncertain meaning.)
[*] Involucre 25–30-flowered, with several bracts at its base; receptacle flat.
1. C. suavèolens, L. Stem grooved (3–5° high); leaves triangular-lanceolate, halberd-shaped, pointed, serrate, those of the stem on winged petioles.—Rich woods, Conn. to Mich., Iowa, and southward; rare. Sept.
[*][*] Involucre 5-leaved and 5-flowered, its bracts minute or none; receptacle bearing a more or less evident scale-like pointed appendage in the centre.
2. C. renifórmis, Muhl. (Great Indian Plantain.) Not glaucous; stem (4–9° high) grooved and angled; leaves green both sides, dilated fan-shaped, or the lowest kidney-form (1–2° broad), repand-toothed and angled, palmately veined, petioled; the teeth pointed; corymbs large.—Rich damp woods, N. J. to Ill., Minn., and southward along the mountains. Aug.
3. C. atriplicifòlia, L. (Pale Indian P.) Glaucous; stem terete (3–6° high); leaves palmately veined and angulate-lobed, the lower triangular-kidney-form or slightly heart-shaped, the upper rhomboid or wedge-form, toothed.—Rich woodlands, western N. Y. to Wisc., Minn., and southward. Aug.
4. C. tuberòsa, Nutt. (Tuberous Indian P.) Stem angled and grooved (2–6° high), from a thick or tuberous root; leaves green both sides, thick, strongly 5–7-nerved; the lower lance-ovate or oval, nearly entire, tapering into long petioles; the upper on short margined petioles, sometimes toothed at the apex.—Wet prairies, etc., Ohio to Wisc., Minn., and southward. June.
77. ERECHTÌTES, Raf. Fireweed.
Heads many-flowered; the flowers all tubular and fertile; the marginal pistillate, with a slender corolla. Scales of the cylindrical involucre in a single row, linear, acute, with a few small bractlets at the base. Receptacle naked. Achenes oblong, tapering at the end; pappus copious, of very fine and white soft hairs.—Erect and coarse annuals, of rank smell, with alternate simple leaves, and paniculate-corymbed heads of whitish flowers. (The ancient name of some species of Groundsel, probably called after Erechtheus.)
1. E. hieracifòlia, Raf. (Fireweed.) Often hairy; stem grooved (1–6° high); leaves lanceolate or oblong, acute, cut-toothed, sessile, the upper auricled at base.—Moist woods; common, especially northward, and in recent clearings that have been burned over; whence the popular name. July–Sept.