Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Verbesina encelioides [Ximenesia encelioides] [Ximenesia exauriculata]
- Family
- Asteraceae
- CommonName
- cowpen daisy, crownbeard, ironweed
- Presence
- YES
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1911
- LatestDate
- 2023
- Ecosystem
- basin, foothill, montane, ruderal, urban
- Geobotanical
- SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Great Sand Dunes
- Other Localities
- Del Norte
- Comments
- Cowpen daisy occurs on both sides of valley—basin, foothills, and above. This distinctive Asterid is an opportunistic plant, growing in pinyon-juniper openings, volcanic outcrops, roadsides, irrigation ditches, urban gardens, etc.—most often in dry, sandy soil. Not yet recorded from the Culebras, Verbesina encelioides is probably present there, judging from New Mexico observations. It is a Southwest USA species with extensions into Texas and up the Rocky Mountains to Wyoming. It is solidly present through the entire Rio Grande drainage to the Gulf of Mexico. The species is quite variable, and the one sure feature for determination is its unusual cypselae—ray flower without pappi or awns, disk flower with. Two varieties—var. encelioides and var. exauriculata—are distinguished by presence or non-presence of an auriculate petiole base. Apparently both are present in the Watershed. Although represented by only one species in Colorado, Verbesina has 17 species in the US and around 350 world wide.
- Annotation