Chloracantha

Chloracantha
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Chloracantha
Species:	C. spinosa
Binomial name
Chloracantha spinosa (Benth.) G.L.Nesom
Synonyms
Aster spinosus

Chloracantha is a monotypic plant genus in the aster family containing the single species Chloracantha spinosa, the spiny chloracantha or Mexican devil-weed. It is native to Mexico and the southwestern United States, where it grows in moist or damp areas in otherwise dry habitat, such as desert and scrub. This is a rhizomatous subshrub sprawling to a maximum height around two meters, the branches lined with thornlike points. The deciduous leaves are long and oblong in shape, but fall off the plant soon after developing, leaving it in the form of naked, erect branches. The flower head is lined in linear-shaped phyllaries dotted with orange resin glands. It bears up to 33 white ray florets which curl with age, and many golden disc florets at the center. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long, with a barbed pappus.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment: var. spinosa
• USDA Plants Profile
• Flora of North America
• Photo gallery: var. spinosa