Duration: Unknown

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous perennials, herbage scabrous to roughly long-hairy.

Leaves: Opposite below or alternate, thin, ovate to (rarely lanceolate), margins roughly dentate, blades borne on slender petioles to 10 mm long or more, surfaces scabrous to roughly long-hairy.

Flowers: Bright yellow with yellow centers in radiate heads, large and showy, ray florets with yellow, strap-shaped laminae, disc florets yellow, disk of the heads 7-10 mm high, phyllaries with an ovate or oblong-ovate, indurate and ribbed base and an abrupt, linear to spatulate herbaceous tip, heads borne terminally or in distal branch axils.

Fruits: Cypsleae (achenes) laterally compressed and thickened. Pappus persistent, of 2 awns and several short, dry scales (sometimes absent).

Ecology: Found on dry slopes and ditch-banks, in fields, woods and canyons, from 3,000-7,000 ft (914-2134 m); flowering June-October.

Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas; Mexico.

Notes: The rough feel of the leaves with and stems, the long, slender petioles on the leaves to 10 mm long or more, and the long-lasting and showy yellow flowers with large heads along with the perennial life span help to identify this species. If the petioles are short petioled and the leaves are firm see V. cordifolia.

Ethnobotany: Unknown.

Etymology: Viguiera is named after Louis Guillaume Alexandre Viguier (1790-1867), a French physician and botanist, deltoidea triangular, like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, delta.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher2012