Small Head Doll's Daisy

Plants 30–200 cm; basal offshoots and stolons present or absent. Stems erect (slender). Leaf blades linear to narrowly lanceolate; cauline 25–115 × 3–17 mm, bases not decurrent. Heads 30–100+ in paniculiform arrays, primary branches mostly spreading; only proximal bracts leaflike, others reduced, linear to linear-oblanceolate or subulate, 8–55 × 1–6 mm. Peduncles 5–185 mm; bracts 3–10, linear to linear-oblanceolate or subulate, 2–10(–15) mm. Involucres 2.5–3 × 2.5–6 mm. Phyllaries in 4–6 series, subulate or linear-oblong, unequal, 6–8 merging down peduncles; outer 1–1.8 × 0.3–0.6 mm; inner 1.8–3 × 0.3–0.7 mm. Ray florets 20–40; corolla white to lilac, laminae 3–6.3 mm, tubes 0.6–1.35 mm. Disc florets 50–135; corollas 1.2–2.5 mm. Cypselae obovoid, 1.6–2.5 × 1–1.6 mm, wings 0.2–0.4 mm wide; pappus awns 0.3–0.7 mm.

Boltonia asteroides Sims

Boltonia diffusa, the smallhead doll's daisy, is a North American species of plants in the family Asteraceae. It native to the United States, primarily the states along the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida plus the lower Mississippi Valley from Louisiana to Illinois. There additional populations in the eastern United States as far north as Virginia.

Boltonia diffusa is a small perennial rarely more than 20 cm (8 inches) high. It spreads by stolons (horizontal stems running along the surface of the ground). It has many daisy-like flower heads with white or lavender ray florets and yellow disc florets.

Varieties Boltonia diffusa var. diffusa - coastal regions and Mississippi Valley Boltonia diffusa var. interior Fernald & Griscom - Mississippi Valley