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 Leaves and flowers Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Plant Deaver Herbarium (Northern Arizona University): Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) | | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual Similar Species: Calycoseris wrightii
General Desc:
Showy winter annual usually branched from base, with taproot and milky sap; distinguished by its flower heads of only ligulate florets (ray flowers); herbage conspicuously dotted with red, brown or black, stipitate (stalked), glands.
Identification notes: Winter annual; much branched from the base; flowers bright yellow, ray flowers only; leaves finely divided, sprinkled with tack shaped glands above; fruit (achene) separates from pappus (white bristles) at maturity.
Height:
2 to 12 inches
Habitat Description: Found on sandy to gravelly, limestone soils, in washes, on slopes and sand dunes.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Semidesert Grasslands, Riparian
Elevation: 3000 - 4000 feet
Color:
Yellow
Shape:
Daisy or dandelion-like not in clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Mar - May
Description:
Flower heads with bright yellow ligules (strap-shaped ray flowers); involucres (bracts subtending flowers) 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch wide, minutely bristly, in 2 series, the outer short and wide, the inner narrow, numerous, margins scarious (thin, dry).
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Pinnatifid
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Basal and alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
Leaves and stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Leaves in basal rosettes, alternate along the stems; all leaves without stems; blades to 4 inches long, pinnately divided into narrow lobes, lobes opposite, 1/16 inch or less; upper leaves reduced and narrow.
Fruit Color: Light brown or gray
Fruit Type: Achene
Fruit Notes: Achenes fusiform (tapered at both ends), 5 to 6 ribbed with deep grooves between the ribs, faces not wrinkled; tapering into short beak, expanded at tip into shallow cup with many small teeth. Pappus of white bristles, 1/2 inch long, deciduous in a ring.
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