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Rafinesquia neomexicana
Rafinesquia neomexicana is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Common names include desert chicory,[2] plumeseed, or New Mexico plumeseed.[1][3] It has white showy flowers, milky sap, and weak, zigzag stems, that may grow up through other shrubs for support.[2] It is an annual plant (completes its life cycle in a single season) found in dry climate areas of the southwestern deserts of the US and northwestern deserts of Mexico.[2] DescriptionThe annual plants are gray-green with sparse foliage and are between 15 and 50 centimetres (6 and 19+1⁄2 inches) high.[3] Basal leaves are 5 to 20 cm (2 to 8 in) long and pinnate with narrow lobes while leaves further up the stem are smaller.[3] White flowerheads appear at the end of the stems between May and June in the species native range.[3] Flower heads occur singly at the tip of branches.[2] The flower heads are composed of strap-shaped ray flowers, growing longer toward the outer portion of the head, and collectively creating the appearance of a single flower as in other sunflower family plants.[2] The outer flowers in the head extend well beyond the 1.5–2.5 cm (1⁄2–1 in) long phyllaries (bracts enclosing the flower head before opening).[2] Similar species include R. californica and Calycoseris wrightii.[3] Distribution and habitatIn the United States the species occurs in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.[1] It occurs in the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora.[4] It is found in the Mojave Desert, and in the Sonoran Deserts including the Colorado Desert sub-region. It occurs in sandy or gravelly soils in creosote bush scrub and Joshua Tree woodland plant communities in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert, from California to Texas and northern Mexico.[2] References
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