Acourtia microcephala

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Asterids
Cladus: Campanulids
Ordo: Asterales

Familia: Asteraceae
Subfamilia: Mutisioideae
Tribus: Nassauvieae
Genus: Acourtia
Species: Acourtia microcephala
Name

Acourtia microcephala DC. (1838)
Synonyms

Homotypic
Perezia microcephala (DC.) A.Gray, Smithsonian Contr. Knowl. 3(5): 127 (1852); Pl. Wright. 1: 127 (1852).

Notes

Homonym
Perezia microcephala Ant.Molina (1952) = Acourtia molinana B.L.Turner (1978)

Distribution
Native distribution areas:

Continental: Northern America
Regional: Southwestern U.S.A.
California.
Continental: Northern America
Regional: Mexico
Mexico Northwest (Baja California Norte)

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References

De Candolle, A.P. in De Candolle, A.P. & De Candolle, A.L.P.P. 1838. Prodr. 7: 66.

Links

Hassler, M. 2018. Acourtia microcephala. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2018. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 Jun. 05. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2018. Acourtia microcephala. Published online. Accessed: Jun. 05 2018.
The Plant List 2013. Acourtia microcephala in The Plant List Version 1.1. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 Jun. 05.
Tropicos.org 2018. Acourtia microcephala. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 Jun. 05.

Vernacular names
English: Sacapellote

Acourtia microcephala is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family 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.[2][3][4][5]

Acourtia microcephala is a bushy perennial herb producing several erect stems from a woody caudex up to about 1.5 meters in maximum height. The stems branch toward the ends and are densely foliated in toothed, wavy-edged, glandular leaves 2 to 15 centimeters 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 millimeters long which has a pappus of bristles up to a centimeter in length.[6]

This plant had a traditional medicinal use as a laxative.[7]
References

The Plant List, Acourtia microcephala DC.
Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley
Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
CONABIO. 2009. Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. 1. In Capital Nat. México. CONABIO, MéxicoD.F..
Turner, B. L. 1993c. New taxa, new combinations, and nomenclatural comments on the genus Acourtia (Asteraceae: Mutisieae). Phytologia 74: 385–412.
Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 74 Acourtia microcephala de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 7: 66. 1838.
University of Michigan, Ethnobotany