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Lappula occidentalis cupulata (Lappula occidentalis cupulata)

Description

Slender, ascending to arching racemes at the tips of branches, elongating 2 to 8 inches as the plant matures with flowers open at the tip and fruit forming below. Flowers are white to pale blue, saucer-shaped to tubular, around 1/8 inch across with five round petals fused near the base and a ring of arch-shaped, creamy colored appendages around the throat. Around the base of the flower are 5 narrow, lance-linear sepals, nearly as long as the flower. Alternating with the flowers along the stem are small, leaf-like bracts. Flower stalks are erect, elongating to about 1/8 inch in fruit. Bracts, sepals and stalks are all densely covered in soft, appressed to spreading hairs. Leaves are basal and alternate, toothless, densely covered in soft, appressed to spreading hairs. Basal leaves are stalked, mostly oblong with a rounded tip, withering away by flowering time. Stem leaves are narrowly lance-oblong, - to 2 inches long, up to about - inch wide, flat or folded lengthwise, pointed at the tip, wedge-shaped to rounded at the base, stalkless or nearly so, and becoming somewhat smaller as they ascend the stem. Stems are erect, usually single, branched in the upper plant, angled and densely covered in soft, appressed to spreading hairs. Fruits are round, wider than the flower but less than - inch in diameter, divided into four nutlets with a single row of slender, velcro-like prickles around the edge.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum:

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Boraginales

            • Family: Boraginaceae

              • Genus: Lappula