Stylocline intertexta

Stylocline intertexta is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Morefield's neststraw[1] and Mojave neststraw. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, where it grows in rocky, sandy desert soils. It likely evolved as a hybrid between woollyhead neststraw (Stylocline micropoides) and baretwig neststraw (S. psilocarphoides); it is a mix of their morphological traits and it occurs alongside both of them.[2] It reproduces itself, producing fertile offspring, and it meets other criteria for any other definition of a species, so it was described to science as such in 1992.[3] It is a small annual herb growing at ground level and reaching just a few centimeters in length. It is usually coated in white hairs, often woolly. The small, pointed leaves are oval to lance-shaped and measure up to 1.5 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears spherical flower heads each a few millimeters in diameter. The head has no phyllaries, just a ball of tiny woolly white flowers.

Stylocline intertexta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Asterids
Order:
Asterales
Family:
Asteraceae
Tribe:
Inuleae
Genus:
Stylocline
Species:
S. intertexta
Binomial name
Stylocline intertexta
Morefield

References
  1. "Stylocline intertexta". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  2. Flora of North America
  3. Morefield, J. D. (1992). Three new species of Stylocline (Asteraceae:Inuleae) from California and the Mojave Desert. Madroño 39:114-130.


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