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Home/Species/ Small's Ragwort

Packera anonyma

(Wood) W.A. Weber & A. Love

Small's Ragwort

G5Secure Found in 11 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.146382
Element CodePDAST8H040
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVascular Plant
KingdomPlantae
PhylumAnthophyta
ClassDicotyledoneae
OrderAsterales
FamilyAsteraceae
GenusPackera
Synonyms
Senecio anonymusWood
Other Common Names
Small's Groundsel (EN) Small's ragwort (EN)
Concept Reference
Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Taxonomic Comments
This concept has been referred to as Senecio smallii in many manuals and Senecio anonymus in Kartesz (1994).
Conservation Status
Review Date1995-03-14
Change Date1986-04-02
Edition Date1995-03-14
Edition AuthorsM.E. Stover, TNC-HO
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences81 to >300
Rank Reasons
Widespread in southeastern United States; common in large part of its range.
Range Extent Comments
New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania south to Florida, west to Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Ecology & Habitat

Diagnostic Characteristics

Plant perennial; principal leaves once-pinnatifid; persistently woolly at the base and sometimes in the leaf axils, but not on the upper stem, leaves, or incolucre; plant not stoloniferous; basal leaves tapering to the petiole; heads many, mostly 20-100 or more. (Cronquist 1980) Hybridizes with several other species including S. pauperculus (Fernald 1950), S. aureus, and S. plattensis (Uttal 1982), and (rarely) S. tomentosus (Chapman and Jones 1971.)

Habitat

Meadows, pastures, roadsides, dry woods, savannas, thickets, clearings. (Cronquist 1980, Fernald 1950, Radford et al. 1968)

Reproduction

Ray flowers pistillate and fertile, disk flowers perfect (Cronquist 1980). The genus is "a generalist with respect to pollination" (Schmitt 1980). Pollinators recorded for other Senecio species in North America include bumblebees (Bombus spp.) and various butterflies (Schmitt 1980); and for Senecio jacobea, a British species, 178 insects including thrips, Hemiptera, beetles, butterflies and moths, and many Hymenoptera and flies (Proctor and Yeo 1973). Persistent pappus serves to disperse achenes by wind.
Terrestrial Habitats
Forest/WoodlandWoodland - MixedSavannaGrassland/herbaceous
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5
ProvinceRankNative
New JerseyS1Yes
TennesseeSNRYes
VirginiaS5Yes
GeorgiaS5Yes
FloridaSNRYes
IndianaS3Yes
North CarolinaS5Yes
DelawareS1Yes
West VirginiaS4Yes
MississippiSNRYes
AlabamaSNRYes
South CarolinaS5Yes
OhioSNRYes
KentuckyS4Yes
District of ColumbiaSNRYes
ConnecticutS1Yes
MarylandS4Yes
LouisianaS2Yes
PennsylvaniaS2Yes
Plant Characteristics
DurationPERENNIAL, SPRING-FLOWERING, SUMMER-FLOWERING
Economic Value (Genus)No
Roadless Areas (11)
Florida (1)
AreaForestAcres
SavannahApalachicola National Forest1,927
Georgia (1)
AreaForestAcres
Helton CreekChattahoochee National Forest2,348
North Carolina (7)
AreaForestAcres
Chunky Gal (addition)Nantahala National Forest3,336
Graveyard Ridge (addition)Pisgah National Forest1,958
Harper CreekPisgah National Forest7,325
Lost CovePisgah National Forest5,944
Overflow CreekNantahala National Forest3,379
Tusquitee BaldNantahala National Forest13,670
Woods MountainPisgah National Forest9,602
Virginia (2)
AreaForestAcres
North MountainJefferson National Forest8,377
Oliver MountainGeorge Washington National Forest13,090
References (11)
  1. Cronquist, A. 1980. Vascular flora of the southeastern United States. Vol. 1. Asteraceae. Univ. North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 261 pp.
  2. Fernald, M. L. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. 8th edition. Corrected printing (1970). D. Van Nostrand Company, New York. 1632 pp.
  3. Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2006b. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 20. Magnoliophyta: Asteridae, part 7: Asteraceae, part 2. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxii + 666 pp.
  4. Harvill, A.M., Jr., T.R. Bradley, C.E. Stevens, T.F. Wieboldt, D.M.E. Ware, and D.W. Ogle. 1986. Atlas of the Virginia flora. Second edition. Virginia Botanical Associates, Farmville. 135 pp.
  5. Jones, S.B., Jr., and N.C. Coile. 1988. The distribution of the vascular flora of Georgia. Dept. Botany, Univ. Georgia, Athens. 230 pp.
  6. Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
  7. Kartesz, J.T. 1999. A synonymized checklist and atlas with biological attributes for the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. First edition. In: Kartesz, J.T., and C.A. Meacham. Synthesis of the North American Flora, Version 1.0. North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, N.C.
  8. Proctor, M., and P. Yeo. 1973. The pollination of flowers. William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, London. 418 pp.
  9. Radford, A.E., H.E. Ahles, and C.R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. Univ. North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 1183 pp.
  10. Schmitt, J. 1980. Pollinator foraging and gene dispersal in Senecio (Compositae). Evolution 34(5): 934-943.
  11. Uttal, L.J. 1982. Promiscuity of Senecio plattensis Nutt. in a Virginia county. Castanea 47(4): 344-346.