species 3,703 observations

Sacapellote

Acourtia microcephala

Field notes

Acourtia microcephala is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name sacapellote. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in woodland and chaparral, especially in the coastal mountain ranges.

Acourtia microcephala is a bushy perennial herb producing several erect stems from a woody caudex up to about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) in maximum height. The stems branch toward the ends and are densely foliated in toothed, wavy-edged, glandular leaves 2 to 15 centimetres (0.79 to 5.91 in) long. The stems and leaves are sticky with exudate. The inflorescences contain clusters of many flower heads, each cylindrical head wrapped in long, flat glandular phyllaries. The flower heads are discoid, containing only disc florets and no ray florets. Each disc floret has two lips, the outer of which is long, flat, and usually bright pink, and easily mistaken for a ligule. The fruit is a glandular achene a few millimetres long which has a pappus of bristles up to a centimetre in length.

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Supports All

4 native animals
supported in the US

Range

United States

Greener is more native, amber more introduced; paler is less certain. How this was decided

Key traits

From USDA PLANTS.