Bigelow's Tansy Aster

Dieteria bigelovii
(Machaeranthera bigelovii)

Dieteria bigelovii photo © by Michael Plagens

Photographed along Camp Creek, Maricopa Co., Arizona. August 2008.

FLOWERS: The ray-flowers are purple to lavender-magenta. The disc flowers are yellow. The bracts or phyllaries forming the head occur in many overlapping series and recurve. The peduncle is beset with sticky glands. Flowering mostly after summer monsoon and into fall.

PERENNIAL: Mostly herbaceous above ground, but lower stems and crown may be rather course. Plants may grow to 1.5 meters tall with widely spreading branches.

RANGE: In the Sonoran Desert this plant tends to be found at the higher elevations along the northeastern margins where it merges into chaparral.

ARMED. The margins of the leaves are mucronate, but are unlikely to penetrate the skin.

LEAVES: Dark green leaves are elliptic with several, lightly spine-topped teeth.

FRUIT: Dry single-seeded achenes are clustered in the heads and are topped with numerous fine bristles of unequal length.

Asteraceae -- Sunflower Family

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Sonoran Desert Field Guide
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Copyright Michael J. Plagens, page created 11 Dec. 2008,
updated 27 Aug. 2016.