Porophyllum gracile – Slender Poreleaf

Porophyllum gracile - Slender Poreleaf, Odora, Yerba de Venado

Porophyllum gracile - Slender Poreleaf, Odora, Yerba de Venado

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

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map