Desert Chicory
New Mexico Plumeseed
Rafinesquia neomexicana
Photographed at Robbins Butte, Maricopa Co., Arizona. March 2008. A high resolution image made by Curtis Clark is available at Wikimedia.
Notice that the strap-shaped corollas have approx. five teeth at tip representing the five ancestral petals. Photographed at Robbins Butte, Maricopa Co., Arizona. March 2008.
FLOWERS: Flowering heads are tall with long, partly colored
phyllaries. and numerous strap-shaped florets. Variously streaked
with cranberry-color.
ANNUAL: Herbaceous annual of spring often weakly ascending and supported
by woody shrubs. Sometimes extending up to a meter.
LEAVES: Leaves are coursely toothed or lobed and alternate on the stem.
Upper leaves are reduced in size. Smooth & free of hairs (glaborous).
RANGE: Frequent throughout the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico on
desert flats, along wash banks and on rocky slopes - highly dependent on
rainfall.
FRUIT: Mature seeds bear a plume of feathery bristles at the apex.
UNARMED
Occasionally blister beetles such as the Red-eared Blister Beetle will descend in mass to feed on the succulent petals.