Baileya multiradiata
Desert Marigold
Family: Asteraceae
A staple perennial wildflower of the Tucson basin, this plant grows an average of 1x1’. Yellow, nectar-rich flowers bloom almost any time of year. Plants reseed readily, somehow always in the right place.
Grow in full sun, low water, hardy to -10° F.
Extremely important for pollinators for its continual bloom, including during times when little else is blooming. Specifically depended on by many species of native bees. Granivorous birds like goldfinches consume the seeds.
Rubbed under the arms as a deodorant; mixed with clay and used in making adobes and plaster.
Baileya is named for Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811-1857) an early American microscopist; multiradiata refers to the many ray flowers per flower head.
Found on arroyo bottoms, outwash slopes, sandy plains and roadsides, below 5,000 ft. in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, southeast through AZ, New Mexico and southwest Texas; south to central Mexico.