Wildflowers of Southern Arizona
Broad-Flower Pincushion.
Chaenactis stevioides.
Aster (Asteraceae) family.
Duration: Annual. Nativity: Native. Lifeform: Forb/Herb. General: Annual herbs 5-35 cm tall; stems 1-12, freely branching, grayish woolly-tomentulose when young, becoming glabrate. Leaves: Alternate, concentrated on lower stems, the basal leaves early-whithering; blades fleshy but not succulent, 1-8 cm long, pinnatifid or bipinnatifid, the lobes linear, obtuse, with 4-8 pairs of primary lobes, ultimate segments involute or twisted, 2-8 mm long. Flowers: Flower heads discoid, usually 5-20 per stem, arranged in loose panicles on 1-5 cm peduncles, these often stipitate-glandular and/or tomentose; involucre (ring of bracts surrounding the flower head) obconic to hemispheric, 5-7 mm high, the bracts (phyllaries) linear, 5-8 mm, outer phyllaries stipitate-glandular or arachnoid in fruit; florets 8-70, all discs; corollas white to pinkish, cream, or pale yellow, 4-6 mm long; peripheral corollas spreading, zygomorphic, enlarged. Fruits: Achenes 4-7 mm long, brown to black, strigose, with topped with a pappus of 4 scales, these half or more as long as the achene. Ecology: Found on open dry sites, often in sandy to gravelly soils, below 6,500 ft (1981 m); flowers February-June. Distribution: CA, se OR, s ID, NV, UT, AZ, s WY, CO, NM; south to n MEX. Notes: Fairly abundant spring wildflower. Distinctive with its rounded heads and no ray flowers but instead only milky white disc flowers, each of which is topped by 5 somewhat showy corolla lobes; hairy phyllaries; and pinnately lobed basal leaves. Ethnobotany: Used as a heart medicine for children with fevers, and as a glue to bind ceremonial items. Etymology: Chaenactis is from the Greek chaino, to gape and aktis, ray, referring to the enlarged corollas, while stevioides is named for the Spanish botanist Pedro Jaime Esteve (d. 1566).
Santa Catalina Mountains
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
Location: Beside main tram road 1000 feet from visitor center just beyond a low stone wall.
3/26/19
See SEINet Pictures and Description
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