Click On Picture for Larger Image
Desert Marigold
Author: Ray Bowers
Click On Picture for Larger Image |
Species: Baileya multiradiata |
Description:
The desert marigold is a 8 to 50 cm ( 3.1 to 20 in ) tall annual densely wooly gray plant. The leaves are broadly ovate with pinnately rounded lobes that are found on the lower part of the plant.
Geographic range:
Desert marigolds are found from southeastern California and southern Utah east to western Texas, and then south into northern Mexico.
Habitat:
Desert marigolds are found on sandy and rocky slopes and plains and in arroyos up to 1,524 m ( 5,000 ft ) in elevation. They are especially common along roadsides.
| Reproduction and Development: Desert marigolds are monoecious plants that bloom from April to October. The yellow flower heads are 3.8 to 5 cm (1.5 to 2.0 in ) in diameter. There are twenty five to fifty ray flowers surrounding the central yellow disk flowers. The fruit is an oblong achene, which is a dry one seeded fruit. The ray flower petal may persist on the achene as a yellow papery wing. |
 Click On Picture for Image Information |
Other info:
The desert marigold is sometimes cultivated, and they will make a dense mound of showy yellow flowers. Horses can eat the flower heads, but they are fatal to sheep and goats.
Taxonomy:
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Baileya
Species: Baileya multiradiata
References:
Allred, Kelly W. 2000. A Field Guide to the Flora of the Jornada Plain. Las Cruces: NMSU Department of Animal and Range Science.
Dodge, Natt N. 1985. Flowers of the Southwest Deserts. . Tucson , AZ: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association.
Kearney , Thomas H. and Robert H. Peebles. 1951. Arizona Flora. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
MacMahon, James A. 1987. Deserts. New York : Alfred A. Knoph, Inc.
Niehaus, Theodore F. 1984. A Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company.
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