Madia gracilis

Madia gracilis is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names grassy tarweed, slender tarweed, and gumweed madia.[1][2]

Madia gracilis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Asterids
Order:
Asterales
Family:
Asteraceae
Genus:
Madia
Species:
M. gracilis
Binomial name
Madia gracilis

Distribution

The annual herb is native to western North America: from British Columbia, through California to Baja California; and east to Utah and Montana.[3][4] It grows in many habitat types except for arid desert areas, including oak woodlands and mixed evergreen forests.[5]

Description

Madia gracilis is variable in appearance. In general, it is an aromatic annual herb growing up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) in height. Its stem is branching, and hairy and glandular in texture. The leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and covered in soft hairs and stalked resin glands.

The inflorescence is an array of clusters of flower heads. Each head is lined with phyllaries that are coated densely with stalked knobby resin glands. It bears yellow, lobe-tipped ray florets a few millimeters long and several black-anthered disc florets.

The fruit is a flat, hairless achene with no pappus.

Uses

The seeds were used to make pinole by the indigenous Mendocino, Miwok, and Pomo peoples of California.[6]

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References
  1. ITIS Standard Report Page: Madia gracilis
  2. Flora of North America
  3. USDA: Madia gracilis
  4. Encyclopedia of Life: Madia gracilis, C.Michael Hogan ed. 2010
  5. Jepson Madia gracilis
  6. University of Michigan at Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany of Madia gracilis


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