Pectis humifusa Sw.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Asteraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Prostrate, spreading, mat-forming herb, more or less woody and much-branched at the base; stems to 25 cm long, often branched toward apex as well, densely leafy, puberulent. Leaves 4-13 x 1.5-3.5 mm , oblanceolate to obovate, chartaceous, glabrous with sunken oil glands scattered on lower surface, the apex rounded or obtuse, the margins with 2-8 pairs of bristles toward base. Inflorescence with heads terminal and solitary or in fewheaded cymes. Heads radiate; involucre bell-shaped to cylindrical, ca. 6 mm tall; involucral bracts 5, obovate, with oil glands scattered on lower surface; peduncles 0-12 mm long, bracteolate. Ray flowers 5, very reduced; corollas yellow to purple, with oil glands. Disk flowers (6-) 10-20; corollas yellow to purple, ca. 3 mm long. Achenes all fertile, cylindrical, slightly constricted at base, 2.5-3.5 mm long, strigose to minutely villous; pappus of ray achenes with 2-3 scabrid, bristle-tipped scales and to 10 shorter scales or slender bristles; pappus of disk achenes with 4 - 15 scabrid bnstles or slender scales and up to 12 shorter bristles or scales; both pappus types whitish to brown or yellow.
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Distribution
Rare in coastal or open areas. Dittlif Point (A3968) Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas (fide Lessing in Schlcchtendal, 1831 Bntton, 1918, and Britton & P. Wilson, 1925); from Puerto Rico eastward and southward throughout the Lesser Antilles to the coast of Guyana- also collected once in Florida.
Florida United States of America North America| Guyana South America| West Indies| Puerto Rico South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|