Stems, distal branches, and phyllaries gland-dotted, glands straw-colored. Involucres 10-15 mm. Ligules white, often with fine reddish veins abaxially, 2-3 cm. Cypselae dark tan to brown, shallowly grooved between ribs, faces weakly cross-rugulose. 2n = 14.

Flowering Mar-Jun. Gravels derived from limestone, volcanics, granites, and caliche soils on plains, rocky mesas and slopes, stream bottoms, desert pavement and washes, Upper Sonoran and Lower Sonoran zones, Colorado and Mohave deserts, often in creosote or mesquite associations; 100-1600 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., N.Mex., Tex., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora).

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Winter annual herb, 5-30 cm tall, from a taproot; stems 1-3, spreading-ascending, branched from the base, with milky sap; herbage conspicuously dotted with straw-colored stipitate glands.

Leaves: In basal rosettes and alternate along the stems; all leaves sessile; blades to 10 cm long, pinnately divided into narrowly linear or filiform lobes, these 2 mm wide or less; upper leaves reduced to linear bracts.

Flowers: Flower heads liguliflorous, solitary at the ends of branches; calyculi (extra set of bracts just below the involucre) of 8-16, reflexed, unequal bractlets, half as long as phyllaries; involucre (ring of bracts surrounding the flower head) campanulate, 10-15 mm high, the bracts (phyllaries) 12-20, linear-lanceolate with scarious margins, in one series and equal in length; florets all ligulate, ca. 25 per head, the ligules (5 toothed strap-shaped petals) white, showy, 2-3 cm long, often with fine reddish veins on the lower surface.

Fruits: Achenes brown, 5-ribbed and beaked, 6 mm long including beak, topped with a pappus of smooth white bristles 7-8 mm long.

Ecology: Found on sandy plains, rocky mesas, and slopes, from 500-4,000 ft (152-1219 m); flowers March-May. 

Distribution: CA, NV, AZ, UT, NM, TX; south to n MEX (Baja California, Sonora)

Notes: This showy winter annual is distinguished by its flower heads of only ligulate florets, each floret with a single long (2-3 cm) white, strap-shaped petal with 5 lobes or teeth at the truncate tip. The flowers fade to a purplish color. The upper stems and leaves are dotted with stalked glands. Look for it in rocky areas in the lower elevation deserts, growing up through shrubs in the springtime.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Calycoseris is from Greek kalux, cup and seris, a chicory-like genus, while wrightii is named for Charles Wright (1811-1885) an American botanical collector.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2015