''Madia gracilis'' 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 grassy tarweed, slender tarweed, and gumweed madia.

Description

''Madia gracilis'' is vstem is branching, and hairy and glandular in texture. The leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and covered in soft hairs and stalked resin glands. 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 ...

is an array of clusters of

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 ...

. Each head is lined with

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 ...

that are coated densely with stalked knobby resin glands. It bears yellow, lobe-tipped ray florets a few millimeters long and several black-anthered disc florets. The fruit is a flat, hairless

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 no pappus.

Distribution and habitat

The annual herb is native to western North America: from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, through

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 ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

; and east 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

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

. It grows in many habitat types except for arid desert areas, including

oak woodland An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...

s and mixed evergreen forests.

Uses

The seeds were used to make

pinole Pinole, also called pinol or pinolillo, is roasted ground maize, which is then mixed with a combination of cocoa, agave, cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla, or other spices. The resulting powder is then used as a nutrient-dense ingredient to make di ...

by the indigenous Mendocino,

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ' ...

, and

Pomo people The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small grou ...

s of California.University of Michigan at Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany of ''Madia gracilis''
/ref>

References

External links

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Calflora Database: ''Madia gracilis'' (Gumweed madia, grassy tarweed, slender tarweed)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Madia gracilis''UC Photos gallery — ''Madia gracilis''
gracilis Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of California Flora of Baja California Flora of British Columbia Flora of Nevada Flora of Utah Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Plants used in Native American cuisine Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Madieae-stub