Plant Name
Scientific Name: Porophyllum gracile
Synonyms: Porophyllum caesium, P. junciforme, P. nodosum, P. putidum, P. vaseyi
Common Names: Slender Poreleaf, Odora, Yerba de Venado
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Subshrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert
Flower Color: White to tinged purplish
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Height: To 30 inches (76 cm) tall
Description: The flower heads are slender, rayless, 5/8 inch (1.6 cm) wide, and surrounded by 5 blue-green, purple-tinged bracts dotted with large, dark purple oil glands. The flowers are followed by bristly seed heads. The leaves are simple, alternate or opposite, glaucous blue-green, narrowly linear in shape, and dotted with oil glands. The plants are well-branched with numerous thin, wiry, upright stems.
Special Characteristics
Foul-smelling – The foliage has a strange, unpleasant, rank odor when crushed.
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: Porophyllum Adans. – poreleaf
Species: Porophyllum gracile Benth. – slender poreleaf
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