Southwest Colorado Wildflowers, Machaeranthera grindelioides

Thomas Nuttall collected the first specimen of Machaeranthera grindelioides in Oregon on the Wyeth Expedition of 1834-1837. Nuttall named the plant Eriocarpum grindelioides in 1841, and the plant went through several name changes over the next century until Lloyd Shinners (1918-1971) placed it in the Machaeranthera genus as M. grindelioides in 1950.

Machaeranthera grindelioides.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert. Openings, rimrock sands and gravels. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 15, 2006.

Machaeranthera grindelioides probably attracts more attention with its needle-toothed leaves (see next photographs) than with its small, ray-less flowers (see last photograph). The plant thrives in hot, dry, open areas where it grows in small clumps with last year's dead growth forming a gray skirt around it.

"Machaer" is Greek for "sword" and "anthera" is Greek for "anthers" from "anthos", "flower". "Machaeranthera" thus refers to the sword shape of the anther tips. David Hieronymus Grindel was a Russian (Latvian) chemist, pharmacist, and doctor. "Grindelioides" means, "similar to the genus Grindelia". See Grindelia. (More biographical information.)

Machaeranthera grindelioides.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert. Openings, rimrock sands and gravels. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 15, 2006 and October 19, 2007.

Machaeranthera grindelioides.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert. Openings, rimrock sands and gravels. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 15, 2006.