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Key to Echinacea

Asteraceae

Echinacea

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1 Leaves lanceolate to ovate, the larger (basal) leaves 3-10 (-15) cm wide and rounded to cordate at the base.
  2 Leaves glabrous on both sides, or scabrous above; chaffy bracts (pales) ca. 9 mm long, the awns about a fourth as long as the body of the pales and with incurved tips; ray blades 35-80 mm long, strongly drooping
  2 Leaves pubescent or scabrous on both sides; chaffy bracts (pales) 10-13 mm long, the awns about half as long as the body of the pales and with straight tips; ray blades 25-55 mm long, horizontal to slightly drooping
1 Leaves lanceolate to linear, the larger (basal) leaves 1-3 (-4) cm wide and cuneate to attenuate at the base.
    3 Hairs of the stems, leaves, and peduncles appressed or ascending (strigose); leaf blades sparsely pubescent.
      4 Rays yellow; [MO and AR]
      4 Rays purple, pink, or white; [KS, OK, and TX].
        5 Ray blades 19-35 mm long; cypselae glabrous; [e. KS, OK, and ne. to se. TX]
        5 Ray blades 30-70 mm long; cypselae hairy on their upward end, at least on the angles; [Arbuckle Mountains of sc. OK]
    3 Hairs of the stems, leaves and peduncles spreading (hirsute); leaf blades densely pubescent.
          6 Ray blades 15-40 mm long.
             7 Rays curved upward, the blades 25-32 mm long; discs 15-25 mm in diameter; [endemic to calcareous glades in c. TN]
             7 Rays declined to reflexed, the blades 15-40 mm long; discs 20-35 mm in diameter (measured at late flowering and including to the tips of the paleae and disc flowers); [widespread in the Great Plains, east in our area to MO, e. OK, w. LA, and e. TX]
               8 Stems simple or infrequently branched, hirsute or tuberculate hirsute to tuberculate hispid above
               8 Stems frequently branched, strigose or strigose-hirsute above
          6 Ray blades 40-90 mm long.
                 9 Discs (at late flowering and including to the tips of the paleae and disc flowers) contracted at the base, 15-30 mm tall and 20-30 mm in diameter; paleae 8-11 mm long, the tips rounded and purple; [se. AR and sw. OK south to s. LA and se. TX]
                 9 Discs (at late flowering and including to the tips of the paleae and disc flowers) widest at the base, 20-40 mm tall and 20-37 mm in diameter; paleae 9-14 mm long, the tips pointed and pinkish to purple; [collectively widespread in our area, including east of the Mississippi River].
                   10 Ray blades 3-4 mm wide, pink to purple; cypselae of the ray flowers glabrous; fresh pollen white (rarely light, lemon yellow)
                   10 Ray blades 4-7 mm wide, rose, pink, or white; cypselae of the ray flowers hairy; fresh pollen pale to bright or deep yellow