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Platyschkuhria
integrifolia variety oblongifolia. Synonym:
Bahia nudicaulis. Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Semi-desert. Openings, hills. Spring, summer,
fall. This aromatic plant occurs just in the Four Corners states although there are several other varieties of Platyschkuhria integrifolia that are found north of the Four Corners and one that occurs in Wyoming. Platyschkuhria integrifolia grows singly or in small clumps on hot, barren-seeming ground, usually in gulches where it gets just the small amount of water it needs. Plants often can be found dotting the ground in a pattern indicating that they are sprouting from spreading roots. Plants normally bloom in early summer but rains can, as they did for the plant pictured at left, bring on fall plants and blooms. In 1874 Asa Gray named this plant Schkuhria integrifolia from a specimen collected by Charles Parry in Wyoming. In 1883 Gray renamed the plant Bahia nudicaulis In 1906 Per Axel Rydberg renamed it Platyschkuhria integrifolia. "Platy" is Greek for broad and refers to the leaves; "schkuhria" is a similar looking Asteraceae genus with narrow leaves, so the name Platyschkuhria means, "similar to Schkuhria but with broader leaves". Christian Schkuhr was a German gardener who published a Handbook of Botany. (More biographical information.) |
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Platyschkuhria
integrifolia variety oblongifolia. Synonym:
Bahia nudicaulis. Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Semi-desert. Openings, hills. Spring, summer,
fall. Plants can have one to few stems as in the above photograph or they can have multiple stems as in the photograph at left. |
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Platyschkuhria
integrifolia variety oblongifolia. Synonym:
Bahia nudicaulis. Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Semi-desert. Openings, hills. Spring, summer,
fall. Clumps of basal leaves arise surrounded by last year's dead stems and leaves. |
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Platyschkuhria
integrifolia variety oblongifolia. Synonym:
Bahia nudicaulis. Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Semi-desert. Openings, hills. Spring, summer.
fall. Notice a number of flower characteristics that help to identify this plant: In the top photograph at left you can see that ray flowers are rather short and are notched twice at their tips producing three lobes. In the bottom photograph at left you can see that phyllaries are in two rows, one distinctly outer (somewhat overlapping) and the other quite on the interior with just the tips showing (only one inner tip shows just to the left of the center of the photograph). Also in the bottom photograph you can see that the phyllaries and flower stems are glandular, i.e., they have sticky, sometimes ball-tipped hairs to which all kinds of debris (sand, bugs, seeds) stick. The hairs are best seen at the left side of the phyllaries just above their junction with the flower stem. And finally, notice the rounded, bulging mound of disk flowers. |
