Madia exigua

Species of flowering plant

Madia exigua
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Madia
Species:
M. exigua
Binomial name
Madia exigua
(Sm.) A.Gray

Madia exigua is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names small tarweed and threadstem madia.

Range

Madia exigua is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California, where it grows in many types of dry habitat outside the deserts.

Description

Madia exigua is an aromatic annual herb growing up to half a meter (20") tall, its slender stem coated with hairs, large stalked resin glands, and sometimes bristles. The rough-haired leaves are 1 to 4 centimeters (0.4 to 1.6") long.

The inflorescence is an array of clustered flower heads on thin, stiff peduncles. Each head has an involucre of phyllaries shaped like a top. The phyllaries are coated in knobby yellow resin glands. At the tip of the inflorescence are minute yellowish ray florets each under a millimeter long, and one or two yellow disc florets. The fruit is an achene with no pappus.

  • Jepson Manual Treatment: Madia exigua
  • USDA Plants Profile: Madia exigua
  • Flora of North America: Madia exigua
  • Madia exigua — U.C. Photo gallery
  • Media related to Madia exigua at Wikimedia Commons
Taxon identifiers
Madia exigua
Sclerocarpus exiguus


  • v
  • t
  • e