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Brickellia chenopodina
(Gila brickellbush)
[taxon report][distribution map][photos][line drawing]
Family: Asteraceae
Scientific Name: Brickellia chenopodina (Greene) B.L. Robinson
Synonyms: Coleosanthus chenopodinus Greene
Vernacular Name: Gila brickellbush
R-E-D Code: 3-3-3
Description: Shrub, much branched; stems stout, glandular above, bark exfoliating; leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, ovate to lanceolate, averaging 35 mm long, somewhat thick and succulent, glabrous or nearly so, acute at the apex, rounded to cuneate at the base, margins serrate; heads approximately 12 mm in height with about 28 flowers, paniculate, on slender, leafy, glandular-viscid peduncles 2-4 cm long; involucral bracts lanceolate or the inner bracts linear-oblong, glandular-viscid, acute to obtuse, conspicuously nerved, some of the outer bracts often foliaceous and as long as or longer than the corolla; flowers white to pinkish in color, perfect and tubular; achenes 10-nerved, faintly strigose; pappus of minutely barbed capillary bristles. Flowers September and October.
Similar Species: Brickellia floribunda has cordate leaf bases and peduncles 4-10 mm long.
Distribution: New Mexico, Grant County, Gila River Valley.
Habitat: Restricted to alluvial soils along the Gila River; 1,370 m (4,500 ft).
Remarks: Known only from the type collection. The specimen is likely an atypical growth of Brickellia floribunda that may have been induced by burial in sediment following a flood.
Conservation Considerations: Although a questionable taxon, it should be retained until more information is available.
Important Literature (*Illustration):
*New Mexico Native Plants Protection Advisory Committee. 1984. A handbook of rare and endemic plants of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Robinson, B. 1917. A monograph of the genus Brickellia. Memoirs of the Gray Herbarium 1:1-155.
Wooton, E.O. and P.C. Standley. 1913. Descriptions of new plants preliminary to a report upon the flora of New Mexico. Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium 16:109-196.
Information Compiled By: Jack Carter, 1999
Agency Status:
