Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Starry Rosinweed - Silphium asteriscus var. asteriscus L.

Members of Asteraceae:

Section 6 » Order Asterales » Family Asteraceae

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Author	L.
Distribution	Mostly Piedmont, scattered in low Mountains; disjunct to outer Coastal Plain: Craven Co., "roadside, US 70, Dover" in 1966; and Pender Co., "causeway across swamp forest, Northeast Cape Fear River near Rocky Point" in 1950. VA to MO and OK, south to FL and TX.
Abundance	Common in the Piedmont, rare in the Mountains and Coastal Plain.
Habitat	Dry to mesic woodlands and forest openings, clearings, clearcuts, roadside banks, fields, pastures.
Phenology	Flowering and fruiting late June-September.
Identification	The Silphium asteriscus complex consists of 5 varieties, according to FNA, 4 of which occur in NC. Plants grow mostly 3-5 feet tall, with lance-shaped to ovate leaves and a rather small inflorescence of nearly erect branches terminating in yellow heads. Basal leaves are absent at flowering time. The involucral bracts (at the base of each head) are broad, rounded, and thick-textured; thus they differ strongly from bracts of sunflowers (Helianthus). Variety asteriscus and var. dentatum have rough surfaces to leaves (vs. smooth in var. latifolium). Variety asteriscus may have tiny hairs on the pales (tiny bracts at the base of each disk floret), but these lack glands (vs. glandular-hairy in var. dentatum).
Taxonomic Comments	Most NC specimens were annotated by J.A. Clevinger in 1999, who studied this species complex.
Other Common Name(s)
State Rank	S3? [S4]
Global Rank	G5TNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

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Photo Gallery

photographer	comments	photo_link	county	obsType
B.A. Sorrie	Piedmont, Carbonton Road N of Haw Branch Road. 9 July 2018.		Moore		Photo_natural