In the genus Antennaria, commonly known as Indian Tobacco, the color of the style arms (usually red or white) is used as a distinctive character in the descriptions of many species, and is emphasized in at least one key. My study of the genus as it occurs in Iowa convinces me that this character is too variable to have any diagnostic value

Nicholson, Helen

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 33 Annual Issue Article 15 1926 The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus Antennaria Helen Nicholson State University of Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits you Copyright ©1926 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Nicholson, Helen (1926) "The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus Antennaria," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 33(1), 129-130. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol33/iss1/15 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. THE TAXONOMIC VALUE OF STYLE COLOR IN THE GENUS ANTENNARIA HELE?\i NICHOLSON In the genus Antennaria, commonly known as Indian Tobacco, the color of the style arms (usually red or white) is used as a dis-tinctive character in the descriptions of many species, and is emphasized in at least one key. My study of the genus as it occurs in Iowa convinces me that this character is too variable to have any diagnostic value. According to descriptions of the broad-leaved species, the style arms of Antennaria plantaginifolia and A. occidentalis are crim-son; those of A. Parlinii, as described by Fernald, are pale, be-coming crimson at maturity; and those of A. fallax are pale, sometimes crimson. The same indefiniteness appears in the des-criptions of narrow-leaved forms of the genus. Observation shows that the color of style arms varies greatly in both the small-leaved and the broad-leaved groups of species. In large beds of the narrow-leaved species, A. neglffta, on the strip of alluvial prairie south of Amana, and in smaller beds at Butler's Landing and other localities north of Iowa City, I have found reel styles and white styles in distinctly separated mats of plants. In the same localities, however, I have found other mats of plants in which both reel and white styles were present, not only in flowers of the same plant and on the same stern, but in the same head of flowers. In some heads there were a few flowers with yellow style arms, associated with either reel or white styles, or with both, making three colors in a single head. Apparently no heads bore yellow styles only. The same conditions prevailed in patches of the large-leaved forms, A ntennaria plantaginif olia and its near relatives, at Butler's Landing. There were a few patches of plants with unmixed red or white style arms, just as in the narrow-leaved forms. And in nearby mats, one, two, or in some cases all three colors were found in the same head of -flowers. Considering this variability within a single head of flowers, and in a mat of connected plants, it is impossible to give any value to the color of style arms as a distinctive specific character in the genus Antennaria. The other characters used to distinguish be-129 1Nicholson: The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus AntennariaPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1926130 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIEl\CE tween species of this genus are a little less variable, but nearly all seem to vary as much within a single species as they do between closely related species. No single character of a plant, but a com-posite of all its characters, must be considered in its identification, and even then it is often difficult to determine to which of the many described species it belongs. STATE UNIVERSITY oF IowA, IowA CITY, IowA. 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 33 [1926], No. 1, Art. 15https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol33/iss1/15

The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus Antennaria

https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5688&context=pias

The Taxonomic Value of Style Color in the Genus Antennaria

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Northern Iowa