Participant Info

Species

Corispermum americanum

Family

Amaranthaceae

CommonName

bugseed

Presence

Yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1947

LatestDate

2003

Ecosystem

foothill, montane, sanddunes

Geobotanical

SSanjuans, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Great Sand Dunes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. Of American bugseed, there are only two vouchers, both from the Great Sand Dunes, 56 years apart. In the USA, American bugseed is most commonly found in the desert Southwest but is scattered through the rest of the country, except for the East and Deep South. The plant follows the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. Incidentally, the common name "bugseed" is sprobably a mistranslation of the Latin generic name, which is leathery (cori) seed (spermum), not bedbug (coris) seed (spermum).

Annotation