Desert Chicory

One of the first Spring flowers found in the Southwest deserts. The chicory will be growing inside another brush. It seems like it needs a little... more

by Robert Bales

Title

Desert Chicory

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

One of the first Spring flowers found in the Southwest deserts. The chicory will be growing inside another brush. It seems like it needs a little shade and support from another plant.
Rafinesquia neomexicana is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. Common names include Desert Chicory, Plumeseed or New Mexico Plumeseed.
The annual plants are gray-green with sparse foliage and are between 15 and 50 cm high. Basal leaves are 5 to 20 cm long and pinnate with narrow lobes while leaves further up the stem are smaller. White flowerheads appear at the end of the stems between February to May in the species native range
Desert chicory is a glabrous annual that grows to 60" tall and has somewhat weak, 1-several branching hollow stems and large showy white flowers striped with rose on the underside of the rays. The basal leaves are pinnatifid to 8" long and the upper are shorter, pinnatifid or entire, and auriculate clasping. It is common in creosote bush scrub and joshua tree woodland and may be found in both deserts, often seen entangled in and growing up through the branches of other shrubs and using them for support, preferring gravelly and sandy desert soils and blooming from February to May.

Uploaded

November 14th, 2013