Madia gracilis
common tarweed, grassy tarweed, gumweed, slender tarweed
proximally pilose to hirsute, distally glandular-pubescent;
glands yellowish, purple, or black;
lateral branches seldom surpassing main stems.
linear to oblong, 1–10(15) cm × 1–8(10) mm.
open; panicle- or raceme-like arrays, rarely heads congested.
depressed-globose to urceolate, 5–10 mm.
3–10;
corollas lemon-yellow or greenish yellow;
rays 1.5–8 mm.
2–16+; bisexual, fertile;
corollas 2.5–5 mm, pubescent;
anthers ± dark purple;
ovaries developing;
walls becoming dark; rigid.
sometimes hirsute, finely or coarsely glandular-pubescent;
glands yellowish, purple, or black;
tips erect or somewhat reflexed; flat.
not showy.
connate ? ½ their lengths.
compressed; black, purple, or mottled; dull;
not beaked.
similar to ray fruits.
=32, 48.
Madia gracilis
Open or partially shaded slopes or flats in grasslands, meadows, shrublands, forests, disturbed areas, streambanks. Flowering May–Aug. 0–2100 m. All ecoregions. CA, ID, NV, WA; north to British Columbia, northeast to MT, southeast to UT, south to Mexico. Native.
Madia gracilis often co-occurs with M. sativa. The two species are easily confused because of morphological similarities and inherent variation within both, especially when presented with only ill-prepared or incomplete herbarium material. Despite the tendency of M. gracilis to flower earlier than M. sativa, the two species are partially interfertile (Clausen 1951); hybridization may explain the difficulty of identifying some individuals.
Bruce Baldwin, Gerald Carr
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
