Participant Info

Species

Descurainia sophia

Family

Brassicaceae

CommonName

flixweed, herbe-Sophia, tansy

Presence

YES

Status

exotic, noxious

EarliestDate

1963

LatestDate

2021

Ecosystem

basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, subalpine, ruderal, urban

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Baca, Brown Lakes, Hot Creek, Rio Grande, Russell Lakes, Sanchez Reservoir

Other Localities

Alamosa (town), La Botica, Del Norte

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Del Norte lot by Hwy 160, 4 May 2021 (young plant)

Comments

In the Watershed, flixweed has proved an opportunistic exotic, common in disturbed ground and naturalizing to a variety of habitats, incluing stream side, rocky volcanic slope, and forest edge. BONAP shows Descurainia sophia in every Watershed county but Alamosa, and there is a high likelihood of its presence in that county as well. It has been recorded from the Rio Grande drainage, spottily, through to the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike most USA states, Colorado has not put the species on its noxious weed list.

Annotation