Plant Name
Scientific Name: Malacothrix glabrata
Synonym: Malacothrix californica var. glabrata
Common Names: Smooth Desertdandelion, Smooth Desert Dandelion, Desert Dandelion
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. This plant grows in sunny, open, sandy washes and flats.
Flower Color: Light yellow, White (uncommon)
Flowering Season: Spring. This wildflower blooms, sometimes in huge numbers, in years with sufficient winter rains.
Height: Up to 16 inches (40 cm) tall
Description: The dandelion-like flower heads are up to 1 3/4 inches (4.4 cm) wide and have numerous, slender, strap-shaped, square-tipped, 5-toothed corollas. Young, not fully opened flower heads have a reddish spot in the center. The sparse leaves are green, alternate, mainly basal, and usually pinnately lobed with 3 to 6 or more pairs of long, threadlike lobes. The stems are ascending to erect, branched, and hairless to sparsely hairy near the base.
None of the other, similar Malacothrix species found here have threadlike leaves.
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: Malacothrix DC. – desertdandelion
Species: Malacothrix glabrata (A. Gray ex D.C. Eaton) A. Gray – smooth desertdandelion
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