Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Xanthisma spinulosum [Machaeranthera spinulosa] [Machaeranthera pinnatifida] [Amellus spinulosus] [Haplopappus spinulosus] etc.
- Family
- Asteraceae
- CommonName
- tansy aster
- Presence
- YES
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1934
- LatestDate
- 2023
- Ecosystem
- basin, foothill, montane, ruderal, urban, sanddunes
- Geobotanical
- Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Rio Grande, Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Baca, Dry Creek, Great Sand Dunes, San Luis Lakes
- Other Localities
- La Botica, Del Norte
- PhotoRecords
- YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Del Norte, house 17 July 2013; Rio Grande Co, base of Limekiln Peak 7 May 2021
- Comments
- This is the common Xanthisma in the Watershed, a hardy perennial occupying the same habitat as Verbesina encelioides—open, dry, sandy, volcanic, and occasionally ruderal ground. A plant has been growing beside a driveway in Del Norte for seventeen years now (2006-2023) and can be found still be blooming almost into November. There are many named varieties, three of which have been collected from the Watershed: var. glaberrimum, var. gooddingii, and, the most common, var. spinulosum. This third variety follows the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico and Texas to the Gulf. The species is present in all Great Plains and Western USA states except for Washington and Oregon. Note that X. spinulosum is variable, especially in leaf shape. A more reliable distinction between X. spinulosum and X. gracile (which may also be present in the Watershed) is not leaf shape but rather the fact that X. spinulosum is perennial with a thick caudex producing, usually, many stems. X. gracile does not take a bushy shape as X. spinulosum usually does.
- Annotation