page_title: Aureolaria virginica
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Aureolaria virginica / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Botanical illustration of Dasystoma flava (1913). This was published prior to when Dasystoma flava was renamed Aureolaria virginica, and Dasystoma virginica was renamed Aureolaria flava by Francis Pennell, because he discovered that the fuzzy species originally named Rhinanthus virginicus in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus had been mistakenly confused by 19th century botanists with the smooth species originally named Gerardia flava in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. Pennell explains how this occurred very clearly in "The Scrophulariaceae of Eastern Temperate North America" (1935). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA., which is also available as a Google eBook, although not yet in the public domain. Botanical naming conventions dictate that Pennell was correct in switching the species epithets back, and there have not been any more recent changes made to the names of these two species. Unfortunately, some resources, particularly those functioning as aggregators of large quantities of information, including materials which may be out of date, have perpetuated this confusion, such as this botanical illustration of Dasystoma flava being labeled as Aureolaria flava on the USDA website, and later uploaded to Wikipedia. This illustration could pass as either species, whereas the illustration of Dasystoma virginica which was labeled as Aureolaria virginica, resembles neither.
context_page_description: Aureolaria virginica, the downy yellow false foxglove or downy oak leach, is a perennial forb native to the eastern United States and Canada, which produces yellow flowers in summer.
context_section_description: Aureolaria virginica is 50 to 150 centimeters tall and covered in fine downy hairs. The leaves are ovate to lanceolate, 6 to 15 centimeters long and 1.5 to 4.5 centimeters wide. The lower leaves sometimes have lobes or teeth. The flowers are borne on 1 to 3 millimeter long pedicles. The flowers have five 3.5 to 4.5 centimeters long petals fused into a corolla tube, and are smooth on the outside. The fruit is a 1 to 1.5 centimeter long dry ovoid capsule that splits open when ripe.
caption: Botanical illustration of Dasystoma flava (1913)
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