Annuals, 5-50 cm (taprooted); herbage spicy-scented. Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely puberulent (in decurrent lines). Leaves linear to narrowly elliptic, 10-50 × 1-5 mm, margins with 1-3 pairs of setae, faces glabrous or sparsely puberulent (dotted on margins with round oil-glands 0.2-0.7 mm). Heads borne singly or in open, cymiform arrays. Peduncles 20-80 mm. Involucres campanulate. Phyllaries distinct, oblong or narrowly obovate, 4-7 × 1-2 mm (dotted with 0-2, subterminal oil-glands plus 2-4 pairs of inconspicuous, round to narrowly elliptic, submarginal oil-glands). Ray florets 8(-13); corollas 5-11 mm. Disc florets (7-)20-55; corollas 3.5-5 mm (2-lipped). Cypselae 3-4.5 mm, strigillose or short-pilose; ray pappi of 1-4, antrorsely barbed awns 1-4 mm or coroniform; disc pappi of 15-30, antrorsely barbed bristles 2.5-5 mm or coroniform. 2n = 24 (as P. palmeri).

Flowering Jul-Oct. Deserts, desert grasslands, arid scrub, dry woodlands; 600-1600 m; Ariz.; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Pectis rusbyi is much less common in Arizona than P. papposa var. papposa, with which it sometimes grows.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, to 50 cm tall, erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely puberulent in decurrent lines, herbage strongly aromatic and spicy-scented, plants taprooted.

Leaves: Opposite, linear to narrowly elliptic, 10-50 mm long and 1-5 mm wide, margins entire, gland-dotted, with 1-3 pairs of small, stiff hairs, leaf faces glabrous or sparsely puberulent.

Flowers: Heads small, radiate, rays yellow, 8-13, the corollas 5-11 mm, disk flowers yellow, 20-55, the corollas 2-lipped, involucres campanulate, phyllaries 8-10, oblong or narrowly obovate, in a single series, gland-dotted, heads mostly solitary at the branch tips and in stem axils and forks, the peduncles 20-80 mm long, usually considerably surpassing the leaves.

Fruits: Achenes 3-4.5 mm, short-pilose. Pappus in the ray flowers of 1-4 slender awns or bristles, in the disk flowers of numerous short bristles, or reduced to a crown.

Ecology: Found in deserts, desert grasslands, arid scrub, and dry woodlands, from 2,000-5,500 ft (610-1676 m); flowering August-September.

Distribution: Arizona; Mexico.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Pectis is from the Greek pecteo, to comb, while rusbyi is named for Henry Hurd Rusby (185501940) and economic botanist who worked for the New York Botanical Garden.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011