''Enceliopsis covillei'', known by the common name Panamint daisy, is a rare
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n desert 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 ...
.
[
]
Distribution
The perennial plant is 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 ...
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 ...
, within Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...
in Inyo County
Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is o ...
. It is only known from the rocky slopes of the western Panamint Range
The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. Dr. Darwin French is credited as applying the term Panamint in 1860 during his s ...
sky island
Sky islands are topographic isolation, isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated montane ecosystems, hi ...
, west of Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth.
Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...
in the northern 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 ...
.
The species was named for American botanist Frederick Vernon Coville
Frederick Vernon Coville (March 23, 1867 – January 9, 1937) was an American botanist who participated in the Death Valley Expedition (1890-1891), was honorary curator of the United States National Herbarium (1893-1937), worked at then was Chi ...
(1867–1937), by American botanist Aven Nelson
Aven Nelson (March 24, 1859 – March 31, 1952) was an American botanist who specialized in plants of the Rocky Mountains. He was one of the founding professors of the University of Wyoming, where he taught for 55 years as professor and served as ...
as ''Helianthella covillei''.
Description
''Enceliopsis covillei'' is a perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
herb with erect stems varying in height from 15 to 100 cm (6-40 inches), growing from a tough, woody 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 ...
. The silvery woolly leaves are up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) long by 8 wide and are spade-shaped to oval to diamond-shaped with winged petioles.[Flora of North America, Panamint daisy, ''Enceliopsis covillei'' (A. Nelson) S. F. Blake]
/ref>
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 a large solitary flower head
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 an erect or leaning peduncle which may reach 100 cm (40 inches) tall. The flower head
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 ...
has a base made up of three layers of pointed 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 ...
coated in gray or silvery hairs. The head has a fringe of many yellow ray florets
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 ...
each up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) long, surrounding many small 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 of the same color.[
The fruit is an ]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 ...
about a centimeter long with a small pappus.[
]
Conservation
An artwork of the Panamint daisy is featured in the logo of the California Native Plant Society
The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California environmental non-profit organization (501(c)3) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for future generations. The mission of CNPS is to con ...
, a renowned botanical, conservation, and education organization in California established in 1965.
''Enceliopsis covillei'' is an endangered species on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.California Native Plant Society, Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants (online edition, v8-02): ''Enceliopsis covillei'' report
. accessed 2 April 2017.
References
External links
Calflora Database: ''Enceliopsis covillei'' (Panamint daisy)
Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Enceliopsis covillei''
USDA Plants Profile of ''Enceliopsis covillei'' (Panamint daisy)
Missouri Botanical Garden.org: photo of herbarium specimen, isotype of ''Enceliopsis covillei''
— ''collected in Death Valley in 1891''.
UC Calphotos gallery of ''Enceliopsis covillei'' (Panamint daisy)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5375334
covillei
Endemic flora of California
Flora of the California desert regions
Natural history of the Mojave Desert
Natural history of Inyo County, California
Death Valley National Park
Panamint Range
Plants described in 1895
Taxa named by Aven Nelson