Plants rounded, densely branched from bases. Stems glandular. Petioles filiform, 2-6 cm, lengths 3-10 times blades. Leaf blades 3-10+ mm, sharply toothed, often subhastate. Corollas 4-5 mm. Cypselae 3-4 mm; pappi: scales 1-2+ mm, bristles 2-5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering (Oct-)Mar-May(-Jun). Rocky slopes and washes, limestone outcrops, crevices of canyon walls, creosote bush scrub, acacia-mesquite; 0-200 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora).

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Subshrubs or shrubs, to 1 m tall, plants rounded, densely branching from bases, herbage glandular-puberulous.

Leaves: Thin, opposite or alternate, distal often alternate, lanceolate to lance-ovate, deltate, or rhombic, 2-10 mm long or more (but usually shorter than the petioles), margins generally few-toothed, 1 or 3-nerved, margins with few, sharp teeth, faces glabrous and usually stipitate-glandular, petioles thread-like, 2-6 cm long.

Flowers: White in discoid heads, disc florets 25-30, corollas 4-5 mm long with narrowly cylindric throats, heads 6-11 mm long, involucres obconic, 4-6 mm diameter, strongly graduated, phyllaries persistent, dry, few-ribbed; outer short, ovate, with acute subherbaceous tips, inner lanceolate, with recurved and darker tips, 2.5-6 mm long, about 25 in 3-5 series, herbaceous to papery (chartaceous), surfaces glandular, 1- or 3-nerved, receptacles flat or convex, epaleate, styles glabrous with club-shaped (clavate) branches, heads borne singly or in loose, panicled or corymbiform arrays.

Fruits: Cypselae (achenes) prismatic, 4-5-ribbed, 3-4 mm long, surfaces scabrellous. Pappi persistent, of subulate-aristate scales 10-12, 1-2 mm long (rarely more), and 3-12 coarse, barbellate bristles 1-5 mm long, these in 1 series.

Ecology: Found on limestone outcrops and rocky slopes, in washes, crevices of canyon walls, and among creosote bush scrub or acacia-mesquite communities, from 0-700 ft (0-213 m); flowering October-June.

Distribution: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah; Mexico

Notes: Look for this somewhat weedy-looking species with urn-shaped flowers and conspicous, dark-tipped phyllaries in Mohave, Yuma, and Pima counties in Arizona.

Ethnobotany: Unknown.

Synonyms: Hofmeisteria pluriseta

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Pleurocoronis comes from the Greek pleurikos, "rib or side," and the Latin corona, "crown," referring to the pappus, whlie pluriseta means many-bristled.