Brownfoot
Acourtia wrightii
Family: Asteraceae
Herbaceous subshrub, growing to about 1.5 to 2 feet tall, up to 3’. By comparison, Thurber’s desertpeony (A. thurberi) has only 3-6 flowers per head while this species has 8 or more. This species also does not get as large. Blooms June to November or even later.
Moderate water, full to part sun.
Nectar-rich flowers attract many pollinators and this species is important to the native bees that occur in its regional distribution. Larval host for the Snout Plume Moth (Hellinsia longifrons) and probably other moth species.
Formerly known as Perezia wrightii. 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). Acourtia is named for Mary Elizabeth Catherine Gibbes A-Court (1792-1878), while wrightii is named for the American botanical collector Charles Wright (1811-1885).
Found on rocky slopes, in gravelly or sandy soils, below 6,000 ft. in southern Nevada, southern Utah, south through Arizona, southern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado; south to central Mexico. Differs from Acourtia thurberi by having narrower leaves, phyllaries (involucral bracts) which lack glands and have somewhat more blunted tips; and more flowers per head (8-12 flowers, compared to 3-6 in A. thurberi).