Amoreuxia gonzalezii is a rare species of flowering plant in the Bixaceae known by the common names Santa Rita mountain yellowshow, Santa Rita throwup weed, saiya and temaqui.[1] It is native to Sonora in Mexico, its distribution extending just above the border into Arizona in the United States, where it occurs in the Santa Rita Mountains of Pima[2] and Santa Cruz Counties.[3][4] It has also been found in the States of Sinaloa and Jalisco to the south.[5][6] It is also present in the Sierra de la Laguna of Baja California Sur.[7]

Amoreuxia gonzalezii

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Bixaceae
Genus: Amoreuxia
Species:
A. gonzalezii
Binomial name
Amoreuxia gonzalezii
Sprague & Riley

This plant is a perennial herb with stems 25 to 35 centimeters long growing from a tuber-like rootstock. The leaves are divided deeply into 5 to 7 lobes, the blades dark green in color and 3 to 6 centimeters wide. The flower is 6 to 8 centimeters wide with five orange petals with dark red-brown spots at the bases. The flowers close in the daytime.[1] Blooming occurs in July through September.[2] The hanging fruit is up to 8 centimeters long and contains rounded brown seeds. This species is very similar to Amoreuxia palmatifida.[1]

This plant grows in the transition between desert scrub and grassland. In the Santa Rita Mountains it grows on limestone talus and in Mexico it has been found on granite. Other plants in the habitat include Eysenhardtia, Erythrina, Cercidium floridum, Tecoma, Agave schottii, Heteropogon, Fouquieria, Calliandra, Opuntia spp., Krameria, Janusia gracilis, Agave palmeri and Hibiscus coulteri.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Amoreuxia gonzalezii. Archived 2011-08-27 at the Wayback Machine Arizona Game & Fish Department Heritage Data Management System.
  2. ^ a b Amoreuxia gonzalezii. The Nature Conservancy.
  3. ^ Hodgson, Wendy (1994). "Bixaceae Lipsticktree Family". Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science. 27 (2): 188–189. ISSN 0193-8509.
  4. ^ "Biota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map".
  5. ^ "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". wcsp.science.kew.org.
  6. ^ McVaugh, Rogers; Anderson, William R. (1983). Flora Novo-Galiciana: a descriptive account of the vascular plants of Western Mexico. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 9–751. ISBN 978-0-9620733-5-9.
  7. ^ Rebman, Jon P.; Gibson, Judy; Rich, Karen (15 November 2016). "Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Baja California, Mexico" (PDF). Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 45. San Diego Natural History Museum: 80.