''Stephanomeria tenuifolia'', the narrow-leaved wire-lettuce or narrow leaved stephanomeria, is a
perennial plant
In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...
in the family
Asteraceae
Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...
that grows in the
Great Basin
The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...
of the western United States.
[Great Basin Wildflowers, Laird R. Blackwell, 2006, Morris Book Publishing LLC., ] It has five ray flowers that give it the appearance of being petals of a single flower of a plant in another plant family.
[
]
Growth pattern
It grows with much branching from .[
]
Leaves and stems
Leaves are threadlike.
Inflorescence and fruit
The inflorescence is a head with 5 square-tipped, petal-like ray flower
Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fam ...
s and sepal-like phyllaries.[
Fruits are seeds attached to parachute-like pappi.][
]
Habitat and range
Narrow leaved stephanomeria grows in the plains and dry slopes in sagebrush steppe
Sagebrush steppe also known as the sagebrush sea, is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of shrubs, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus '' Artemisia''. , mixed conifer, and mountain shrub communities in the Great Basin
The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...
.[ In California it can be found in sagebrush scrub, Northern juniper woodland, yellow pine forest, red fir forest, lodgepole forest, and subalpine forest plant communities.][Stephanomeria tenuifolia, Calflora]
/ref>
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15553682
tenuifolia