Eriophyllum

woolly sunflower
E. confertiflorum Voorhis Ecological Reserve California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Tribe:	Heliantheae
Genus:	Eriophyllum Lag.
Type species
Eriophyllum staechadifolium Lag.
Synonyms
Trichophyllum Nutt. Actinolepis DC. Eremonanus I.M.Johnst.

Eriophyllum, commonly known as the woolly sunflower, is a North American genus of plants in the sunflower family. The genus is native to western North America (USA, Canada, northwestern Mexico), with a concentration of narrow endemics in California.

Eriophyllum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Phymatopus californicus.

Description

Eriophyllum is an annual or perennial shrub or subshrub, some species growing to a height of 200 cm (6.7 feet). Leaves present generally alternate and entire to nearly compound, with woolly hairs on some of the species. The inflorescence contains numerous yellow flower heads in flat-topped clusters. The involucre structure is obconic to hemispheric. Phyllaries are either free or more or less fused; the receptacle presents typically flat, but naked. The ray flowers are present in some species but not in others. Fruits are angled in the outer flowers, but are generally club-shaped for the inner flowers; the pappus is somewhat jagged.

Selected species

2