Carphephorus is a genus of seven herbaceous perennials native to the southeastern United States. They flower in late summer to fall.

Classification

Some authors separate out some species into separate genera Trilisa and Litrisa. The differences between the genera, when separated this way, are subtle and so other authors include all these plants in Carphephorus. Molecular data does support the separation.

Carphephorus is in the tribe Eupatorieae

Eupatorieae

Eupatorieae is a tribe of over 2000 species of plants in the aster family. Most of the species are native to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate areas of the Americas, but some are found elsewhere...

 of the aster family. Like other members of this tribe, the flower heads have disc florets and no ray florets. Carphephorus is in the subtribe Liatrinae along with, for example, Liatris

Liatris

Liatris is a genus of ornamental plants in the Asteraceae family, native to North America, Mexico, and the Bahamas. These plants are used as a popular summer flowers for bouquets.They are perennials, surviving the winter in the form of corms....

and Garberia

Garberia

Garberia is a shrub native to Florida. It grows in dry areas with sandy soils which do not contain much organic matter. It mostly flowers in the late fall, but can flower year round.- Classification :...

.

Species

The genus contains the following species and varieties:

• C. bellidifolius
• C. carnosus (Trilisa carnosa)
• C. corymbosus
• C. odoratissimus (Trilisa odoratissima)
  • C. odoratissimus var. odoratissimus
  • C. odoratissimus var. subtropicanus (sometimes treated as a separate species Carphephorus subtropicanus). This species or variety is more southern than C. odoratissimus var. odoratissimus, lacks the characteristic coumarin
    Coumarin
    Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...
    
     odor of the latter, and has a different growth habit (being smaller with more of a rosette
    Rosette (botany)
    In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem.-Function:...
    
    form). There is some overlap between the ranges of the two.
• C. paniculatus (Trilisa paniculata )
• C. pseudoliatris
• C. tomentosus