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Support the Flora of the Southeastern US

2024 has been a banner year for making the best flora we can imagine. We've created:
With financial support from people like you, we are aiming even higher in 2025. Together we can accomplish all this: Vote on our 2025 priorities
  • Add Global Conservation Ranks (GRanks) vote
  • Professional graphic keys (polyclaves) to individual families/genera vote
  • 2 new FloraQuest apps: Florida & Mid-South vote
  • Image overlays highlighting diagnostic characters with arrows vote
  • iNaturalist integration in FloraQuest vote
Write-in vote: vote
We've set a goal of recruiting 200 ongoing supporters to donate $15 or more each month in 2025. Please help us reach this goal and make next year's flora even better:
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Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Nabalus

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1 Principal phyllaries 12-15, rather densely pilose; florets 15-38 per head; basal leaves very large, often > 20 cm long, usually hastate or sagittate and also with the blade with a few pinnate lobes; petiole broadly winged; [southeastwards to c. PA, WV, e. KY, e. TN, and s. AR]
1 Principal phyllaries 4-10, glabrous to somewhat densely hirsute; flowers mostly 4-19 per head; basal leaves usually < 20 cm long, variously lobed or not, but not as above; petiole not broadly winged; [collectively widespread in our area].
  2 Phyllaries glabrous or with few cilia or inconspicuous fine short pubescence at the tip.
    3 Principal phyllaries (4-) 5 (-6); flowers 4-6 per head
    3 Principal phyllaries 7-10; flowers 8-15 per head.
      4 Inflorescences narrow and elongate (virgate); flowers pink to purple
      4 Inflorescences open, corymbiform to paniculiform, with some elongate branches; flowers white, cream, yellowish, pink, or purple.
        5 Pappus cinnamon-brown; corolla whitish to pinkish
        5 Pappus straw-colored to light brown; corolla pale yellow
  2 Phyllaries evidently (though sometimes sparsely) pubescent with long coarse hairs (1.5-3 mm long).
          6 Inflorescence corymbiform to paniculiform, many of the branches well-developed.
             7 Phyllaries densely setose; leaves usually merely toothed, sinuate, or shallowly lobed
             7 Phyllaries sparsely setose; principal leaves usually evidently lobed
          6 Inflorescence cylindric, thyrsoid, the branches very short.
               8 Heads nodding; principal phyllaries 4-7 (-9); flowers 5-8 (-13) per head; [of the Southern Appalachians of NC, TN, and VA].
                 9 Stems glabrous; some leaves 3-5-lobed (above the 2 basal lobes)
                 9 Stems pubescent; leaves merely hastate, with dentate margins
               8 Heads ascending or nearly erect; principal phyllaries (6-) 8 (-10); flowers (8-) 11-14 (-19) per head; [north and west of n. NJ, PA, WV, KY, TN, nw. AL, and MS].
                   10 Stem and lower surfaces of the leaves roughly hairy; flowers cream-colored
                   10 Stem and lower surfaces of the leaves glabrous; flowers purplish