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desert palafox, Spanish needle

Habit Annuals, 10–200 cm.
Stems

scabrous to nearly glabrous, sometimes distally stipitate-glandular.

Leaf

blades lance-linear to linear, 20–120 × 2–55 mm.

Involucres

cylindric to narrowly turbinate.

Ray florets

0.

Disc florets

9–40;

corollas ± actinomorphic, 9–13 mm, throats ± cylindric, longer than lobes.

Phyllaries

± equal, 10–25 × 1–2.5 mm, ± scabrous, sometimes stipitate-glandular.

Cypselae

10–16 mm;

pappus scales of inner cypselae 8–12 mm.

2n

= 24.

Palafoxia arida

Phenology Flowering late winter–spring(–summer).
Habitat Sandy soils
Elevation 30–1000 m (100–3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Plants of Palafoxia arida 90–150 cm with phyllaries 16–25 mm (from dunes west of Yuma, Arizona) have been treated as var. gigantea. Plants referable to P. arida have been named P. linearis (Cavanilles) Lagasca (including var. gigantea M. E. Jones) in other floras; P. linearis is a Mexican species (see B. L. Turner and M. I. Morris 1976).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 21, p. 390.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Chaenactidinae > Palafoxia
Sibling taxa
P. callosa, P. feayi, P. hookeriana, P. integrifolia, P. reverchonii, P. riograndensis, P. rosea, P. sphacelata, P. texana
Synonyms P. arida var. gigantea
Name authority B. L. Turner & M. I. Morris: Madroño 23: 79. (1975)
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