Chorizanthe rigida

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Chorizanthe rigida

Rigid spineflower or
Rigid Spiny Herb

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Polygonaceae
Genus:	Chorizanthe
Species:	C. rigida

Binomial name

Chorizanthe rigida
(Torr.] Torr. & A. Gray

Chorizanthe rigida (common names: devil's spineflower, Spiny-Herb, Rigid Spiny-Herb, Rigid Spineflower) is a short, erect and sometimes single-stalked, but multi-stalked to 5 stalks or more, 2.5-6.0 inches (2 dm) annual plant in the Polygonaceae family the buckwheats. It is a member of the genus Chorizanthe, the spineflowers and is found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, in the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Baja California-north, and Sonora.

It is a common desert plant found in washes, or in flat mesas that flood with annual rains; also rocky hillsides, and ridgelines, for example throughout the Muggins Mountains Wilderness of southeast Arizona in almost every locale. The plant grows quickly, especially following spring rains, and with the onset of early summer, turns into a spine-skeleton. It has a main taproot, mostly longer than the plant is tall, taking advantage of the rainfall's ground moisture.

In desert flats, the short 3 inch plant can be easily obscured, by downstream-washed debris that easily collects on the spineflower skeleton. Thus small hillocks of debris are found, a spineflower in the core; possibly this is the advantageous form of germinating at least the source location into a second generation.

The devil's spineflower is extremely conspicuous when growing in its bright new green; when desiccated its spiny skeleton is blackish, dark gray, or of medium browns and blends in easily to the desert background ground colors.

[edit] Western Sonoran Desert specifics

In the hottest sections of the western Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona the Rigid Spineflower is mostly a 2.5 to 5 inch plant and is often not noticed when the plant goes dry, (see here (a multi-stalked short plant)). When hiking in a flat mesa, that also floods, the plant can be hidden under clumps and not seen. On a roadside, its skeleton will be left as a single erect plant, the taller plants being found in the highest water-pooled areas.

Across the Colorado River in the eastern Colorado Desert the plant can be found in any major wash in mid spring following at least moderate winter rains.