Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia – Common Fiddleneck

Orange-flowered Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia - Common Fiddleneck, Rancher's Fireweed

Yellow-flowered Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia - Common Fiddleneck, Rancher's Fireweed

Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia - Common Fiddleneck, Rancher's Fireweed

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia

Synonym: Amsinckia intermedia

Common Names: Common Fiddleneck, Rancher's Fireweed

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert, Upland. This weedy plant can be abundant after unusually wet winters, and dense patches of it can cover the ground.

Flower Color: Yellow-orange, Yellow

Flowering Season: Spring

Height: Up to 40 inches (1 m) tall, but usually half that or less

Description: The flowers are small, tubular, atop coiled terminal flower spikes, and have 5 rounded lobes, usually red-orange marks in the throat, and a hairy, green, 5-lobed calyx. The flowers are followed by irregularly shaped nutlets with a rough, bumpy surface. The leaves are simple, green, bristly, alternate, linear, narrowly lanceolate, or oblong in shape, and largest at the base of the plant. The stems are upright and covered in bristly hairs.

The very similar Bristly Fiddleneck (Amsinckia tessellata) has flowers with only 2 to 4 lobes and smooth, rounded nutlets.

Special Characteristics

Poisonous – The seeds contain the toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids intermedine and lycopsamine.

Stinging or Itching – The plants are covered in sharp, brittle hairs that can irritate human skin (especially when the plants are dry), so do not walk through a patch of dried Common Fiddleneck if you have bare legs.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Lamiales
Family: Boraginaceae – Borage family
Genus: Amsinckia Lehm. – fiddleneck
Species: Amsinckia menziesii (Lehm.) A. Nelson & J.F. Macbr. – Menzies' fiddleneck
Variety: Amsinckia menziesii (Lehm.) A. Nelson & J.F. Macbr. var. intermedia (Fisch. & C.A. Mey.) Ganders – common fiddleneck

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map