Desert Holly
Author: Ray Bowers

Description:
Desert holly is a 3 to 20 cm ( 1.2 to 7.9 in ) tall perennial that grows from a large tuber. The stiff holly shaped alternately spaced leaves are 2 to 5 cm ( 0.8 to 2.0 in ) long and about the same width with unequally arranged course spiny teeth along the edge.

Geographic range:
Desert holly grows from Arizona east to Texas, and south into northern Mexico.

Habitat:
Desert holly is found in arid and semiarid sandy, gravelly, or clay soils on slopes, on plains, or in arroyos. It is especially common to find it growing under shrubs.

Reproduction and Development:
Desert holly is a monoecious plant that blooms from April to December in the Jornada depending on the rains. Pollination is by insects. The lavender-pink flowers are found in a solitary heads of twenty to thirty flowers. A cup made of rows of reduced or modified leaves called bracts surrounds the flower head. Each flower produces a single seed that has numerous fluffy hairs or bristles.

Other info:
The roots of desert holly contain a chemical that will change color in an acid or alkaline solution.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Acourtia
Species: Acourtia nana

References:
Allred, Kelly W. 2000. A Field Guide to the Flora of the Jornada Plain. Las Cruces: NMSU Department of Animal and Range Science.

Kearney , Thomas H. and Robert H. Peebles. 1951. Arizona Flora . Berkeley , California: University of California Press.

Wooton, E.O. and Paul C. Standley. 1915 . Flora of New Mexico . Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol 19. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Related Terms: Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida