Encelia virginensis |
Encelia farinosa |
|
---|---|---|
Virgin River brittlebush, Virgin River encelia |
brittlebush, incienso |
|
Habit | Shrubs, 50–150 cm. | Shrubs, 30–150 cm (sap fragrant). |
Stems | with slender branches from bases, hairy, developing fissured barks. |
branched distally, tomentose, developing smooth barks. |
Leaves | cauline; petioles 2–7 mm; blades gray-green, narrowly ovate to deltate, 12–25 mm, apices acute or obtuse, faces sparsely canescent and strigose. |
cauline (clustered near stem tips); petioles 10–20 mm; blades silver or gray, ovate to lanceolate, 20–70 mm, apices obtuse or acute, faces tomentose. |
Peduncles | canescent. |
glabrous except near heads (± yellow). |
Involucres | 9–13 mm. |
4–10 mm. |
Ray florets | 11–21; corolla laminae 8–15 mm. |
11–21; corolla laminae 8–12 mm. |
Disc corollas | yellow, 5–6 mm. |
yellow or brown-purple, 5–6 mm. |
Phyllaries | narrowly ovate. |
lanceolate. |
Heads | borne singly. |
in paniculiform arrays (branching among heads mainly distal). |
Cypselae | 5–8 mm; pappi usually 0, rarely of 1–2 bristlelike awns. |
3–6 mm; pappi 0. |
2n | = 36. |
= 36. |
Encelia virginensis |
Encelia farinosa |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun, Dec. | Flowering Feb–May, Aug–Sep. |
Habitat | Desert flats, rocky slopes, roadsides | Coastal scrub, stony desert hillsides |
Elevation | 500–1500 m (1600–4900 ft) | 0–1000 m (0–3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; NV; UT
|
AZ; CA; NV; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora)
|
Discussion | In the mountains of the eastern Mojave Desert in California, Encelia virginensis may intergrade with E. actoni at higher elevations, probably as a result of hybridization. Plants of E. virginensis in New Mexico may be adventive. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Plants of Encelia farinosa with brown-purple disc corollas, found along the Colorado and Salt rivers, and common in Baja California, are var. phenicodonta. Plants with substrigose leaves, capitulescences branched toward bases rather than distally, and ray florets reduced in both size and number are most often hybrids and backcrosses between E. farinosa and E. frutescens. P. A. Munz (1959) indicated that I. L. Wiggins had reported var. radians Brandegee ex S. F. Blake as occurring in southeastern California; that variety is known only from Baja California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 121. | FNA vol. 21, p. 121. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Encelia | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Encelia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. frutescens var. virginensis | E. farinosa var. phenicodonta |
Name authority | A. Nelson: Bot. Gaz. 37: 272. (1904) | A. Gray ex Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Not. Milit. Reconn., 143. (1848) |
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