Agoseris heterophylla (Nutt.) Greene
Family: Asteraceae
annual agoseris,  more...
[Troximon chilense (Less.) A.Gray,  more...]
Agoseris heterophylla image
Barry Breckling  

Annuals. Stems 0 or 1 (erect, 0-5 cm). Leaves mostly erect, sometimes prostrate; petioles not purplish, margins glabrous or ciliate; blades usually oblanceolate to spatulate, rarely linear, 1-25 cm, margins entire or lobed; lobes 2-3 pairs, linear to spatulate, spreading to antrorse, lobules mostly 0, glabrous or densely hairy. Peduncles elongating after flowering, 3-60 cm in fruit, glabrous or glabrate, or basally puberulent and apically hairy to tomentose, sometimes stipitate-glandular. Involucres cylindric to hemispheric, 1-2 cm in fruit. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, green or medially rosy purple, sometimes purple-black spotted or tipped, subequal to unequal, margins glabrous or ciliate, faces usually puberulent to villous, mostly stipitate-glandular, sometimes glabrous; outer erect or spreading, adaxially usually villous to lanate, sometimes glabrous; inner erect, ± elongating after flowering. Receptacles epaleate. Florets 5-100(-300); corollas yellow, tubes 1-5 mm, ligules 2-15 × 1-3 mm; anthers 1-4 mm. Cypselae 7-16 mm, bodies mostly fusiform to obconic, sometimes tumid, 2-5(-10) mm, beaks 5-11 mm, lengths 1-4 times bodies, ribs 0 or alate, straight to strongly undulate, uniform or diminishing proximally; pappus bristles in 2-3 series, 4-9 mm.

FNA 2006, Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual from slender taproot.

Leaves: Oblong, spatulate or linear, entire, denticulate or sinuate-pinnatifid, 0.2-3 cm wide, 5-15 cm long, sparsely villous or glabrous, lobes on pinnatifid blades ovate to oblong, spreading or ascending, nearly as wide as long.

Flowers: Slender scapes 5-40 cm tall, often several from single root, glabrous or very sparsely villous, involucres 10-18 mm high, often nearly as broad, bracts lance-acuminate, inner ones glabrous and hyaline-margined, outer ones shorter and arachnoid-villous to glabrate; inconspicuous ligules, barely surpassing involucres and withering early; yellow corolla.

Fruits: Fusiform cypselae, body smooth or longitundinally 10-ribbed, 3-4 mm long, glabrous to villosulous, slender beak 5-8 mm long; pappus bristles white, 5 mm long.

Ecology: Found on grassy hillsides and openings in brush from 2,500-5,000 ft (762-1524 m); flowers March-May.

Notes: Overlaps with A. glauca in the transition zones of the southwestern US.

Ethnobotany: Unknown for this species, other species in this genera have medicinal and edible uses.

Etymology: Agoseris is from Greek name for goat chicory, heterophylla means the leaves are different on the same plant.

Synonyms: Troximon chilense, Troximon heterophyllum

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Agoseris heterophylla image
Barry Breckling  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Keir Morse  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Keir Morse  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Keir Morse  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Keir Morse  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Keir Morse  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Zoya Akulova  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Barry Breckling  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Barry Breckling  
Agoseris heterophylla image
Zoya Akulova