Plant Species: Microseris nutans, nodding microseris
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae -- sunflower
Genus: Microseris
Species: nutans
Common Name: nodding microseris
Species Code: MINU
Origin: Native to mesic open places in grasslands and open forest, mostly east of the Cascades of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, south to California and east to Colorado and Montana.
Rare: no
Form: forb, perennial from thickened fleshy roots; stems variable, erect, curved or decumbent, 10-70 cm tall, glabrous or scaly, sap milky.
Mature height: 4-28 inches
Duration: perennial
Longevity: moderate lifespan
Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thicket, forest
Wetland Indicator Status: not listed
Leaves: mostly toward the base, narrow, 5-30 cm long, variable from entire or toothed or laciniate, glabrous or scaly.
Flowers: heads mostly solitary and terminal on the branches, nodding in bud; flowers all ligulate and perfect, yellow; involucre 1-2 cm tall, cylindric to campanulate, outer bracts shorter than the inner, often calyculate.
Flower color: yellow
Bloom: May, June
Bloom starts on: late May
Bloom ends on: late June
Fruit: achene, columnar or fusiform, grey to brown, 3.5-8 mm long, glabrous or finely hairy; pappus consisting of 15-20 scales each terminating in a long, white, plumose bristle.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Ptilocalais nutans in Piper & Beattie 1914.
215,692 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
2n=18 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, University of British Columbia 2003, Baldwin et al 2004).
Flowers are all ligulate and perfect.
Roots are bitter, but were eaten raw by Native Americans (St. John 1963).
Fruit is an achene.
Perennial species of Microseris are self incompatible (Baldwin et al 2004).
Seeds are wind dispersed.
Comments:
Sun requirement: full sun
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation: 16-60 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Fire: fleshy roots probably survive fire
Hazards:
Sowing time: fall
Transplant time: spring
Stratification: cold moist
Seed yield: medium
Seed harvest: difficult
Seed first harvest: second season
Seed cleaning: medium difficulty
Planting duration: medium
Seed insect problem: none noted
Seed shatter: high
Seed size: medium
Seed harvest date: early June-mid July
Seed comments: indeterminate, seed must be harvested frequently, seed is windborne
Keywords: native upland perennial forb
Alternate Genus: Ptilocalais
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Notes: Microseris nutans flowers are yellow and similar to a dandelion, but the plants are much better behaved. The deeply toothed leaves are interesting. Grows easily from stratified seed. Plants with low levels of competition grow large and flower over a long period, beginning in May. Seed is windborne. Common name is nodding microseris (Skinner et al 2005).
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 11/26/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/
Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.
Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.
Price, H. James, and Konrad Bachman. 1975. DNA Content and Evolution in the Microseridinae. American Journal of Botany 62:262-267.
Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf
St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.
University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/
USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 26 November 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf