''Erigeron kachinensis'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae 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 ...

known by the common names Kachina fleabane and Kachina daisy. It is native to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in the United States. It is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

of the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...

.Allphin, L. and K. T. Harper. (1997)
Demography and life history characteristics of the rare Kachina daisy (''Erigeron kachinensis'', Asteraceae).
''American Midland Naturalist'' 138(1) 109-20.''Erigeron kachinensis''.
The Nature Conservancy. ''Erigeron kachinensis'' grows from a taproot and branching

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

and has stems up to 18 centimeters (7.2 inches) in length. The leaves at the base of the plant are up to 5 centimeters (2 niches) long, with smaller ones along the stem. They are hairless and non-glandular. The

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 ...

have phyllaries which are often purplish and are hairless. They contain white or pinkish ray florets surrounding small yellow

disc floret 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 ...

s.''Erigeron kachinensis''.
Flora of North America. It often flowers twice a year.''Erigeron kachinensis''.
Center for Plant Conservation. ''Erigeron kachinensis'' was discovered and described in 1968 in Utah, near Kachina Natural Bridge in

Natural Bridges National Monument Natural Bridges National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about northwest of the Four Corners boundary of southeast Utah, in the western United States, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado ...

. It was discovered in the

Dolores River Canyon The Dolores River Canyon is located in southwestern Colorado, USA, west of the town of Naturita and north of the town of Dove Creek. Dolores River Canyon is a dramatic canyon composed of red Wingate Sandstone. The entire canyon sits on lands ad ...

in Colorado in 1977. It grows in hanging gardens and seeps in the cracks of rock faces. The rock is Cedar Mesa Sandstone.Allphin, L. and K. T. Harper. (1994)
Habitat requirements for ''Erigeron kachinensis'', a rare endemic of the Colorado Plateau.
''Great Basin Naturalist'' 54(3) 193-203. The plant relies on seeps of water coming from the rock cracks. If the water dries up, as in a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

, the plants die. Associated plants in the habitat include '' Aquilegia micrantha'' (Mancos columbine), '' Calamagrostis scopulorum'', '' Zigadenus vaginatus'' (death camas), and '' Cirsium calcareum'' (Cainville thistle). The alcoves in which the plant grows sometimes contain Anasazi ruins. Tourists examining the ruins may affect the plants. The word ''

kachina A kachina (; also katchina, katcina, or katsina; Hopi: ''katsina'' , plural ''katsinim'' ) is a spirit being in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo peoples, Native American cultures located in the south-western part of the United States. In th ...

'' refers to a ''spirit being'' in the traditions of some of the Native American groups in the region.Dockstader, Frederick J. (1954). The Kachina and the White Man: a study of the influences of White culture on the Hopi kachina cult. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Institute of Science.

References

External links

United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5388406 kachinensis Flora of Colorado Flora of Utah Plants described in 1968