Plant Name
Scientific Name: Isocoma tenuisecta
Synonyms: Haplopappus tenuisectus, Aplopappus tenuisectus
Common Names: Burroweed, Burro Weed
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. It grows in dry, sunny, open, disturbed areas like roadsides, graded areas, and in overgrazed pastures and rangeland.
Flower Color: Golden yellow disks
Flowering Season: Summer (late), Fall
Height: 1 to 3 feet (30 to 91 cm) tall
Description: The rayless flower heads are in rounded clusters at the tips of the woody stems. The leaves are alternate, dark green, small, thickened, gland-dotted, and pinnately-lobed with linear, point-tipped lobes.
Special Characteristics
Poisonous – The plants are poisonous and contain the toxic substance tremetol, which can cause the "trembles" in animals that eat a large quantity of the plants. Horses are the most affected. Humans can become ill with "milk sickness" from drinking milk from cows that have grazed on Burroweed. Fortunately, the plants are foul-tasting and usually avoided by livestock unless there is nothing else to eat.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae – Aster family
Genus: Isocoma Nutt. – goldenbush
Species: Isocoma tenuisecta Greene – burroweed
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