''Stylocline intertexta'' is a species of flowering plant in the family
Asteraceae known by the common names Morefield's neststraw and Mojave neststraw. It is native to the
Mojave and
Sonoran Deserts of
California,
Nevada,
Utah, and
Arizona, where it grows in rocky, sandy desert soils. It likely evolved as a
hybrid between
woollyhead neststraw
''Stylocline micropoides'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names woollyhead neststraw, woollyhead fanbract and desert neststraw. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern areas in th ...
(''Stylocline micropoides'') and
baretwig neststraw (''S. psilocarphoides''); it is a mix of their
morphological traits and it occurs alongside both of them.
[Flora of North America]
/ref> It reproduces itself, producing fertile offspring, and it meets other criteria for any other definition of a species, so it was described to science as such in 1992.[Morefield, J. D. (1992). Three new species of ''Stylocline'' (Asteraceae:Inuleae) from California and the Mojave Desert. ''Madroño'' 39:114-130.] It is a small annual herb growing at ground level and reaching just a few centimeters in length. It is usually coated in white hairs, often woolly. The small, pointed leaves are oval to lance-shaped and measure up to 1.5 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears spherical 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 a few millimeters in diameter. The head has no phyllaries, just a ball of tiny woolly white flowers.
References
External links
Calflora Database: ''Stylocline intertexta'' (Morefield's neststraw, Tangled nest straw)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatmentUC CalPhotos gallery
intertexta
Flora of the California desert regions
Flora of the Sonoran Deserts
Flora of Arizona
Flora of Utah
Endemic flora of the United States
Natural history of the Mojave Desert
Natural history of the Colorado Desert
Plants described in 1992
Flora without expected TNC conservation status
{{Gnaphalieae-stub