Plant Name
Scientific Name: Proboscidea parviflora
Synonym: Martynia parviflora
Common Names: Doubleclaw, Devil's Claw, Unicorn Plant
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland
Flower Color: Pink, Magenta-red, Bicolored magenta-pink and white
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Height: To 3 feet (91 cm) tall in favorable locations
Description: The flowers are broadly tubular, 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide, glandular-hairy, and have 5 rounded lobes and a bright yellow nectar guide. The top 2 flower lobes often have magenta blotches. The flowers are followed by long, green, hairy, tapering fruits with a single curved "horn" that splits in half when dry to form 2 long, sharp, wooden "claws". The leaves are green, hairy, sticky, entire to shallowly lobed, and rounded, triangular-ovate, or heart-shaped. The stems are plump, hairy, green to tan in color, and erect or spreading.
The similar Ram's Horn (Proboscidea louisianica) has flowers with rust-spotted upper lobes.
Special Characteristics
Culturally Significant Plant – The long, woody claws of the mature seedpods are still used in Native American basketry. The plants cultivated for this purpose have unusually long claws.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Scrophulariales
Family: Pedaliaceae – Sesame family
Genus: Proboscidea Schmidel – unicorn-plant
Species: Proboscidea parviflora (Woot.) Woot. & Standl. – doubleclaw
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