Annuals, 1-20 cm (across or high); herbage not scented. Stems prostrate to ascending (often mat-forming, densely leafy distally), puberulent (in decurrent lines or throughout) or glabrate. Leaves (bluish green) linear to linear-oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, 10-30 × 1.5-4 mm, margins with 2-5 pairs of setae 1-2 mm, faces glabrous (abaxial densely dotted with scattered, circular oil-glands 0.05-0.2 mm). Heads borne singly or in congested, (leafy) cymiform arrays. Peduncles 1-5 mm. Involucres cylindric. Phyllaries coherent (falling together), oblong to oblong-obovate, 6-10 × 2-3 mm (dotted with scattered, elliptic oil-glands 0.05-0.15 mm). Ray florets 3(-4); corollas 3-4 mm (scarcely surpassing phyllaries). Disc florets (3-)7-14; corollas 2.2-2.6 mm (2-lipped). Cypselae 4-5.5 mm, puberulent (distally glandular-puberulent); pappi of 2 (ray) and 5 (disc) lanceolate scales 1.5-3.5 mm. 2n = 48.

Flowering Jul-Nov. Deserts, oak-juniper woodlands, grasslands, wash channels, mud flats, lawns, roadsides; 700-1500 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Pectis cylindrica (2n = 48) is similar to P. prostrata (2n = 24); the two occasionally grow together (D. J. Keil 1975b). Some herbaria contain mixed collections of the two. No evidence is available of hybrids between the two.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, prostrate to ascending, often mat-forming, much-branched, stems to 30 cm long, pilose along 2 vertical lines or glabrate, herbage not aromatic.

Leaves: Opposite, linear to oblanceolate, to 20 mm long and 3 mm wide, faces glabrous, gland-dotted beneath, bluish-green, the margins with 2-5 pairs of bristles 1-2 mm long.

Flowers: Heads small, radiate, rays yellow, 3-4, the ligules to 2 mm long, disk flowers 3-7, the corollas 2-lipped, involucres cylindric, to 10 mm long, phyllaries 3, oblong to oblong-ovate, striate, glabrous to pubescent, pale green or yellowish, sparsely gland-dotted, heads subsessile, borne axillary and solitary, inflorescences leafy, often crowded towards branch tips.

Fruits: Achenes black, puberulent with silvery, appressed hairs. Pappus of 4-6 narrowly lanceolate scales, each tapering into a slender awn.

Ecology: Found on sandy or gravelly soils on plains and mesas, in deserts, oak-juniper woodlands, grasslands, wash channels, mud flats, lawns, and roadsides, from 1,500-5,000 ft (457-1524 m); flowering May-September.

Distribution: AZ, s NM, s TX; south to n MEX.

Notes: Good identifiers for this species are the prostrate stems with leafy inflorescences, the leaves, inflorescences, and stems gland-dotted, and the 3 phyllaries in a single series. Very similar to P. prostrata but with 3-4 ray florets as opposed to 5.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Pectis is from the Greek pecteo, to comb, while cylindrica means cylindrical.

Synonyms: Pectis postrata var. cylindrica

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, FSCoburn 2015