Wyethia

The yellow flowering Wyethia amplexicaulis and the white flowering Wyethia helianthoides

The plant genus Wyethia belongs to the subfamily of herbaceous within the sunflower family ( Asteraceae). The eight species are distributed only in western North America. The North American indigenous peoples have used some kinds versatile.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance and leaves

Wyethia species grow as a perennial herbaceous plant, reaching heights of growth from 15 to 60, rarely up to 100 centimeters. They are relatively massive taproots. The underground shoot base is simple, rarely branched. The upright or rare to overarching stem is usually branched from the base.

The undergraduate and alternate distributed on the stem arranged leaves are usually divided into petiole and leaf blade; sometimes the leaves are sessile. The basal leaves are larger than stem leaves. The simple leaf blades are more or less delta-shaped, elliptical - ovate, lanceolate - elliptic, lanceolate - linear or oblong- ovoid with truncated wedge-shaped to Spreitenbasis and smooth or serrated to dentate margin. The leaf surfaces are hairy or glabrous, sometimes glandular- dotted.

Inflorescences and flowers

In more or less schirmtraubigen total inflorescences are upright on a long, Blütenstandsschäften or two to five, rarely more basket- shaped part inflorescences. A few alternate arranged leaves can occupy the Blütenstandsschäften. The case of a diameter of 1.2 to about 6 inches spherical to bell-shaped or gyroscopic Basket Case ( involucre ) contained in two or three rows 12 to 36, rarely up to about 48 bracts. The durable bracts are equal or unequal, in the latter case the outer foliage leaf-like bracts are larger than the inner ones. The bottom of the basket ( Rezeptakel ) is flat to convex. The tough, parchment-like chaff leaves are folded at least at their base.

The flower heads contain external 5 to 25 ray florets ( ray florets ) and inside many rare 35 to 150 florets ( = disc florets ). The showy, usually yellow, helianthoides only Wyethia cream-colored to white ray florets are female and fertile. The yellow to orange tubular flowers are hermaphrodite and fertile and its tube is shorter, the cylindrical throat; their five corolla lobes are more or less delta-shaped to lanceolate. The stylus is biramose with two little clear lines of scar tissue and more or less filiform appendages.

Fruits

The indistinctly three-to four-sided achenes are oblong. The surfaces of the achenes are glabrous or hairy. The pappus is a ring shape or consists of one to more than four ovate to pfriemlichen, irregular, jagged, sometimes at its base adherent Pappusschuppen or there is no pappus present.

Sets of chromosomes

The basic chromosome number is x = 19

Ecology

The leaves of Wyethia species are infected by the rust fungus Puccinia balsamorhizae.

Systematics and distribution

The genus Wyethia was erected in 1834 by Thomas Nuttall in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Volume 7, 1, pp. 39-40, Table 5. Type species is Wyethia helianthoides Nutt. The genus name honors the Wyethia American inventor, explorer and adventurer ( Mountain Men ) Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth ( 1802-1856 ).

The genus belongs to the subtribe Wyethia Engelmanniinae (formerly Ecliptinae ) from the tribe Heliantheae in the subfamily of herbaceous within the Asteraceae family. Some authors in the genre Wyethia also the species of the closely related genus Balsamorhiza Hook. ex Nutt .. Some species formerly belonging to the genera Agnorhiza ( Jepson ) WAWeber and Scabrethia WAWeber.

The genus Wyethia is distributed only in the western United States.

There are about eight Wyethia types:

• Wyethia amplexicaulis ( Nutt. ) Nutt. ( Syn: Espeletia amplexicaulis Nutt, Wyethia amplexicaulis subsp major Piper, Wyethia amplexicaulis subsp subresinosa Piper, Wyethia lanceolata Howell.. . ): It thrives on moist or dry, open sites in meadows, sagebrush shrublands, ponderosa pine forests in altitudes from 400 to 3000 meters in the U.S. states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
• Wyethia angustifolia ( DC.) Nutt. ( Syn: . Alarconia angustifolia DC, Wyethia angustifolia var foliosa ( Congdon ) HMHall ): It grows in meadows, grassy slopes on, Chaparral, on moist to dry clearings in pine and pine-oak forests at altitudes of 20-2100 meters in California, Oregon and Washington.
• Wyethia arizonica A. Gray: It grows in meadows, clearings in pine, oak or spruce forests at altitudes 600-2200 (up to 3000 ) meters in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
• Wyethia glabra A. Gray: It thrives in shady locations and dry foothills at altitudes of 10 to 800 meters in California. In the coastal mountains it occurs mostly in the fog belt.
• Wyethia helenioides ( DC.) Nutt. ( Syn: Alarconia helenioides DC. ): It grows on grassy slopes and glades in woodlands at altitudes 10-1600 (up to 2000) meters in California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and west of the California longitudinal valley, outside the fog belt.
• Wyethia helianthoides Nutt. Thrives in meadows, moist places, clearings in pine forests at altitudes 40-2600 meters in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.
• Wyethia longicaulis A.Gray: it is known only from the northern California coast mountains and thrives on grassy slopes and in forest clearings at elevations from 700 to 1500 meters.
• Wyethia mollis A. Gray: It grows in meadows, dry to moist, open sites in clearings in pine forests at altitudes 900-2200 (up to 3000 ) meters in California, Nevada, Oregon in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range.

Form some species of the genus Wyethia in which they occur together in locations hybrids. Natural hybrids are:

• Wyethia × magna A.Nelson ex W.A.Weber
• Wyethia × cusickii Piper ( = Wyethia amplexicaulis × Wyethia helianthoides ): It blooms later than most Wyethia helianthoides and earlier than Wyethia amplexicaulis.

Use

The taproots of Wyethia helianthoides and Wyethia mollis be eaten cooked.

From Wyethia amplexicaulis, Wyethia angustifolia, Wyethia longicaulis and Wyethia mollis seeds and young aboveground plant parts were eaten.

The medical effect of Wyethia amplexicaulis, Wyethia angustifolia, Wyethia longicaulis and Wyethia mollis were investigated. North American indigenous peoples have Wyethia amplexicaulis, Wyethia angustifolia, Wyethia longicaulis and Wyethia mollis used in many health problems.

Swell

• David J. Keil, 2012: entry at Jepson eFlora. (Sections Description and systematics)
• William A. Weber: Wyethia, pp. 100-102 - text the same online as printed work, In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee ( eds.): Flora of North America North of Mexico, Volume 21 - Magnoliophyta: unranked ( in part): Asteraceae, part 3, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, June 30, 2006 ISBN 0-19-530565-5 (Sections Description, systematics and distribution ).