6. Chaptalia Ventenat, Descr. Pl. Nouv. plate 61. 1802.
[For J. A. C. Chaptal, 1756–1831, who invented the wine-making process called chaptalization]
Guy L. Nesom
Perennials, 3–40(–100) cm (fibrous-rooted, sometimes rhizomatous; stems ± scapiform). Leaves basal; sessile or ± petiolate; blades elliptic or elliptic-obovate to obovate, obovate-elliptic, ovate, or sublyrate, bases cuneate, margins entire or denticulate, serrulate, or dentate to lobed, abaxial faces usually covered with dense wool, adaxial faces glabrous or glabrescent. Heads quasi-radiate or ± disciform (see florets; chasmogamous, produced well after rosette leaves, erect in flowering, nodding or erect in bud and again in fruit), borne singly. Involucres cylindric to campanulate, (7–)9–15+ mm (larger in fruit). Phyllaries in 2–5+ series, lanceolate to lance-linear, unequal, apices acute. Receptacles flat to convex, foveolate or smooth, glabrous, epaleate. Florets (dimorphic or trimorphic in 1–2 outer, pistillate zones plus 1 inner, bisexual or functionally staminate zone): outer pistillate-zone florets 9–38(–90+) in 1–2(–3) series, fertile, corollas creamy white to purple (sometimes with adaxial midstripe), zygomorphic (liguliform or bilabiate, inner lip often bifurcate, limbs sometimes reduced, style branches terete and linear to flattened and oblong); inner pistillate-zone florets 0 or 3–50 in 1–2 series, fertile, corollas usually ± zygomorphic (with reduced laminae and inner lips), sometimes reduced to tubes; innermost florets usually bisexual and fertile, sometimes functionally staminate, 15–40, corollas whitish to pinkish, usually zygomorphic (2-lipped, lobes recurved or coiling), sometimes nearly actinomorphic (lobes ± equal or lobes ± 0); anther basal appendages entire, apical appendages lanceolate; style branches relatively short (abaxially pilose). Cypselae fusiform, often slightly flattened, distally ± tapered into necks or beaks (0.5–1.6[–3] times bodies), ribs mostly 4–12, faces glabrous or hairy (hairs duplex, relatively short, apices rounded to apiculate), not glandular; pappi of 50+ stramineous to pinkish, barbellulate bristles. x = 24.
Species ca. 60 (3 in the flora): North America, Central America, South America.
Nesom, G. L. 1984. Taxonomy and distribution of Chaptalia dentata and C. albicans (Asteraceae: Mutisieae). Brittonia 36: 396–401. Nesom, G. L. 1995. Revision of Chaptalia (Asteraceae: Mutisieae) from North America and continental Central America. Phytologia 78: 153–188.