Corpus Christi Fleabane

Perennials, 5–40+ cm; apparently taprooted, initially producing basal rosettes from roots or simple caudices, herbaceous, leafy runners abruptly evident. Stems ± prostrate (rooting at nodes), hirsute to hirsutulous, eglandular. Leaves basal (commonly persistent) and cauline; blades oblanceolate to spatulate or cuneate, 20–40(–80) × 5–25 mm, cauline even-sized and evenly spaced, margins usually coarsely serrate or crenate (distal teeth 2–5 pairs), faces hirsuto-villous, eglandular. Heads 1 (on terminal or axillary, scapiform, hirsuto-villous peduncles 5–25 cm). Involucres 6–8 × (8–)10–16 mm. Phyllaries in 2–3(–4) series, hirsute to villous, minutely glandular. Ray florets 225–350; corollas usually white, sometimes pinkish, 5–7 mm, laminae (filiform) tightly coiling. Disc corollas 3.5–4.5 mm. Cypselae 0.7–1 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 12 (ray) or 16–23 (disc) bristles. 2n = 18.

Aster procumbens Houstoun ex Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Aster no. 32, plate 58, fig. 2. 1768; Erigeron myrionactis Small

Erigeron procumbens is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Corpus Christi fleabane, the name referring to a coastal city in Texas. The species grows along the coastal plain and coastal strand of the Gulf of Mexico, in the states of Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Erigeron procumbens is a perennial herb up to 40 centimeters (16 inches) tall, the stems very often procumbent (lying on the ground instead of growing straight up). The plant generally produces only one flower head per stem. Each head has 225–350 pink or white ray florets surrounding numerous yellow disc florets. The species grows in wet depressions between sand dunes as well as on roadsides, and on the edges of mudflats and salt marshes.