''Chaenactis stevioides'', with the common names Esteve's pincushion and desert pincushion, is a species of flowering plant in the

daisy family The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. It is also sometimes called false yarrow or broad-leaved Chaenactis.

Description

''Chaenactis stevioides'' is an

annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook ** Literary annual * Annual plant * Annual report * Annual giving * Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco * Annuals (b ...

herb growing one or more erect stems up to tall. The stems are hairy with cobwebby fibers which thin with age. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are in length and are pinnately divided into many subdivided lobes. The plant blooms from March to June. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

bears several

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

on a tall peduncle. Each head is lined with rigid, hairy and glandular

phyllaries In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or ...

and filled with white, pink, or pale yellow disk flowers, the ones in the middle smaller and somewhat tubular, and the ones nearer to the edge larger and open-faced, resembling ray florets. The fruit is a hairy

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

with a pappus of four scales.

Distribution and habitat

Esteve's pincushion is native to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

of the United States and the southwestern deserts extending into

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, where it grows in open arid and semiarid habitat. According to ''

Flora of North America The ''Flora of North America North of Mexico'' (usually referred to as ''FNA'') is a multivolume work describing the native plants and naturalized plants of North America, including the United States, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenla ...

'', it is "among the most abundant spring wildflowers in the higher

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

and southern Great Basin." Retrieved 10 July 2022. It is also found in the southern

California chaparral and woodlands The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...

habitats.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Chaenactis stevioides'' (Esteve pincushion)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Chaenactis stevioides''USDA Plants Profile: Chaenactis stevioides
* stevioides Flora of the Western United States Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of California Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Asteroideae-stub