Questions concerning the status of the trimorphic and bimorphic heads in Texas Chaptalia led me to examine carefully the 43 Texas specimens in the TEX/LL collections, and later 4 from UTEP and 5 from SRSC (Sul Ross State University) — all but 3 of these later specimens were duplicates of TEX/LL material. The total is thus 46 specimens. My results are given in the following tables.

[For documentation of individual specimens.]

C. carduacea (14 specimens)

month	total	clearly trimorphic	trimorphic with reduced ligules	long–tubular florets	bimorphic	lacked florets
March	7	6	0	1	0	0
April	4	3	0	1	0	0
May	1	1	0	0	0	1
November	1	0	1	0	0	0

C. texana (32 specimens)

month	total	clearly trimorphic	trimorphic with reduced ligules	long–tubular florets	bimorphic	lacked florets
March	12	11	1	0	0	0
April	11	8	1	1	0	1
August–November	8	2	4	0	2	0
January	1	0	0	0	0	1

All but 12 of the specimens are trimorphic (in the sense of having ligulate peripheral florets).Over two thirds are from March & April. Both bimorphic C. texana specimens were from November. In fall/winter 2010–2011 bimorphic specimens of both species in my study populations were noted .

Compared with other Texas Asteraceae there are relatively few Chaptalia collections in TEX/LL (see table below); and over two thirds of these are from C. texana. I believe the primary reason for both these asymmetries is that a closed–head bloom, could perhaps be less obvious and even if noticed, less likely to be collected (considered not yet in flower, or not yet open). [For a recent example of this confusion, Summer 2011 issue of Wildflower (Magazine of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a photograph of a Chaptalia head in late anthesis labeled as 'bud;' p. 26.] The open early spring heads of C. texana exhibit a diurnal cycle, the head being fully open and typically erect or nearly so only during the middle of the day and closing & lowering in the evening. Further, not all C. carduacea heads produce exserted ligules in early spring, and those that do, have reduced ligules — a possible factor in the relatively small number of collections of this species as compared with C. texana.

Beginning with late spring and lasting through the winter both species enter a phase in which full ligules are not produced, and peripheral florets are often hidden within the involucre or long-tubular — i.e., morphologically similar to the inner eligulate florets but with a longer tube — or are absent (thus bimorphic). This phase is difficult to detect with pressed specimens

Unfortunately the collections do not allow determination of the closed/open head distinction, nor is any note of this found with the specimens. One specimen appears to have had an open head, and thus C. texana (Medina Co., E. R. Bogusch 807 [LL]), and only five others might have had an open head at the time of collection. The pressed specimens in general were not mounted in a manner that permits an analysis of the nodding behavior of Chaptalia species, sometimes used as a key feature. [For details of nodding based on fresh specimens.]

Thymophylla pentachaeta	322	Liatris punctata var. mucronata	77
Ratibida columnifera	306	Grindelia lanceolata	71
Tetraneuris scaposa var. scaposa	296	Vernonia lindheimeri	64
Tetraneuris linearifolia	243	Chrysactinia mexicana	62
Engelmannia peristenia	193	Grindelia nuda	60
Cirsium texanum	175	Solidago nemoralis	60
Erigeron modestus	168	Tetragonotheca texana	49
Liatris punctata var. punctata	151	Dysodiopsis tagetoides	44
Centaurea americana	136	Chaptalia texana/carduacea	44
Chaetopappa asteroides var. asteroides	108	Brickellia cylindracea	37
Erigeron philadelphicus	98	Ageratina havanensis	29
Centaurea melitensis	89	Verbesina lindheimeri	22