Dwarf Desert Peony
Acourtia nana
Family: Asteraceae
Tiny little, deciduous perennial with holly-like leaves growing from a rhizome. Grows up to a foot high and slightly wider, sometimes forming small colonies. In the wild they are often found under mesquites or ironwoods, but sometimes out in the open sandy soil. Very fragrant (like violets or jasmine), nectar-rich flowers. Plants dry up and come back from underground rhizomes. Flowers appear spring into early summer, more in the wet years.
Part sun, low water, very good drainage, probably hardy to at least 10°F, but hardiness untested.
Many pollinators use the flowers. Larval host for the snout plume moth (Hellinsia longifrons).
Found on mesas, arid plains, and slopes, usually under shrubs; below 6,000 ft. in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Desert regions of the southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) and northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Zacatecas).
Acourtia is named for Mary Elizabeth Catherine Gibbes A-Court (1792-1878), while nana is from Greek nannos, dwarf. There are 82 species of Acourtia native to the Southwestern United States (from Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah to Texas) and Mesoamerica (in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico). Formerly known as Perezia nana.