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1 Plant a woody shrub; leaves with a markedly pebbled surface |
1 Plant an herb; leaves variously smooth or rugose, but not pebbled. |
..2 Inflorescence flat-topped; disk flowers 2-12, usually fewer than the ray flowers |
..2 Inflorescence corymbose (rounded); disk flowers 17-60, more than the ray flowers. |
....3 Rays white; leaves linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, the longer (10-) 15-20× as long as wide; pappus bristles slightly to strongly clavellate-thickened; [ Solidago sect. Ptarmicoideae] |
....3 Rays yellow; leaves oblong, elliptic, obovate, or spatulate, 2-8× as long as wide; pappus bristles not clavellate thickened. |
......4 Larger leaves obovate, 5-10 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide, with prominent teeth; plants small, 0.5-4 dm tall; [high elevation rock outcrops on Grandfather Mountain, Roan Mountain, and Hanging Rock Mountain (Avery, Watauga, and Mitchell counties, NC)]; [section Solidago, subsection Multiradiatae] |
......4 Larger leaves elliptic-oblong, linear, or lanceolate, 6-25 cm long, 0.1-10 cm wide, with small, obscure teeth; plants more robust, 4-15 dm tall; [of low elevations]; [ Solidago sect. Ptarmicoideae] |
........5 Leaves of the midstem 1-7 mm wide, 10-20× as long as wide; ray flowers 1-4/head, disk flowers 7-13/head; [AR, OK, MS, LA, and TX] |
........5 Leaves of the midstem 8-20 mm wide, 2-12× as long as wide; ray flowers 6-14/head; disk flowers 6-35/head; [collectively widespread]. |
..........6 Leaves of the midstem 8-12 mm wide, 4-12× as long as wide; leaf surfaces, stems, and peduncles glabrous; [marshes, swamps, moist to wet prairies, of OH, IN, OL, MO, and AR (allegedly disjunct in nw. GA and e. VA] |
............ 7 Leaves essentially planar, with only the midvein prominent; leaves straight to slightly curved, appressed to ascending |
............ 7 Leaves folded along the midvein (conduplicate, V-shaped in ×-section), with 3-7 veins prominent from the base of the blade; stem leaves strongly recurved away from the stem |
..........6 Leaves of the midstem 12-20 mm wide, 2-3.5× as long as wide; leaf surfaces, stems, and peduncles glabrescent to densely pubescent. |
............ ..8 Outer series of phyllaries glabrous on the back (glabrous to short-ciliate on the margin); leaf undersurface glabrous to somewhat hispid (0-20 hairs per square mm) (the margins and midrib beneath often more densely pubescent); stems glabrous to somewhat hispid (0-25 hairs per square mm) |
............ ..8 Outer series of phyllaries pubescent on the back (short-ciliate on the margin); leaf undersurface hispid (7-50 hairs per square mm); stems slightly to strongly hispid (10-70 hairs per square mm) |
............ ....9 Pubescence of the stems and leaf surfaces finely and densely hispid-strigose, > 50 hairs per square mm; plants usually 3-7 dm tall; flowering arrays compact; inner phyllaries linear, conspicuously strigillose |
............ ....9 Pubescence of the stems and leaf surfaces coarsely hispid, < 50 hairs per square mm; plants 6-15 dm tall; flowering arrays loose, more diffuse; inner phyllaries oblong and with a rounded apex, glabrate or sparsely strigillose |