Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Nodding Ragwort
Senecio bigelovii
Aster family (Asteraceae)

So often hikers pass by this plant seeing only the dark maroon (sometimes yellow or green) of the nodding flower head and thinking that the flower is not yet open -- or that it is in seed. But tilting up the strongly nodding heads in mid and late summer will reveal a myriad of tightly packed yellow flowers -- with no . The plant is highly variable in height, size, and color of the , and size of leaves. Senecio bigelovii is quite common in mountain forests and , often growing in large scattered clusters. It is very similar to Daffodil Senecio (Senecio amplectens variety amplectens) in its growth pattern but it has no .

John Milton Bigelow was a botanist and member of several mid-1800s Western expeditions in the New Mexico area. He collected the first specimen of this plant for science in the mountains of north-central New Mexico while with the Whipple Survey in 1853-1855. Asa Gray named the plant in 1857.


©2010 Anthony Mendoza, ©2012 Anthony Mendoza

Description

plants with stems to 3' tall, leafy, often branched above, . and lower stem leaves 2-4" long, to lance-, , tapering to a . Upper stem leaves and , to very hairy especially along the . Flowerheads from 2/5 to almost 1" long and 3/5 to 1" wide, one to several flowers in a cluster, nodding. No . an .

Field Marks

Tall, slender plant with tightly packed disk flowers with no in a nodding head with purple or green .

© Al Schneider

midrib -- The central and most prominent vein of a leaf or leaf-like thing.

oblanceolate -- top wider than bottom

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

phyllaries -- Leaflike bracts covering the flowers before opening and remaining under the flower after it opens. Also called "bracts". Only used with the sunflower family (Asteraceae).

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

disc flowers are those in the center of a sunflower or daisy. Not a ray flower.

glabrate -- Almost smooth and glossy or becoming smooth and glossy with age.

ray flowers -- The outer petals of a sunflower or daisy are ray flowers.

Involucre is the name given to the circle or spiral collection of bracts around a flower-cluster.

A clasping leaf suroundes part of all of the stem.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

sessile -- attached without a stalk. For example, a leaf that clasps the stalk. A petiolate leaf has a stalk.

wing -- Pea flowers have wings.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.