DESCRIPTION 



1. GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Small, slender, 

 branching annual usually 6 (12) inches tall. The 

 small (3/4 inch by 1/16 inch wide) , narrowly 

 oblong leaves are mostly opposite on the branched 

 stems. The herbage is lightly short-hairy, and 

 the plant is sticky-glandular above. Flowering 

 heads (head = clusters of flowers in the Sunflower 

 Family) are found in the forks of the stems. 

 After pollination, minute yellow flowers form 

 seeds compressed at right angles to the radius of 

 the heads (these have the appearance of a cluster 

 of green bananas around a fruiting axis) . 



2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Slender, divaricately 

 branching annual up to 1 or rarely 2 dm. tall, 

 more or less pubescent, becoming glandular above; 

 leaves mostly opposite, linear or linear-oblong, 

 1-2 cm. long, 1-2.5 mm. wide; heads in the forks 

 of the stem and in small cymose clusters, 

 terminating the branches; involucre of 3, 4, or 

 most commonly 5 bracts, 2-4 mm. high, bearing 

 conspicuous, tack-shaped, only slightly or 

 moderately viscid glands; rays minute; achenes 

 often with a minute incurved apical beak, the body 

 somewhat compressed at right angles to a radius of 

 the head, the involucral bracts thus broad-backed; 

 receptacular bracts united about the solitary 

 fertile disk flower (1 or more additional, 

 normally fertile disk flowers sometimes present) 

 (adapted from Hitchcock et al. 1955-1969) . 



3. LOCAL FIELD CHARACTERS: This species is 

 distinguished from all ottiers in the genus Madia 

 by achenes that are compressed at right angles to 

 a radius of the stem. In the Bull River valley, 

 M. minima co-occurs with M. exiqua . From a 

 distance the two species are similar in 

 appearance, but upon close inspection, M. minima 

 is distinguished by having achenes that are 

 laterally compressed, an opposite rather than 

 alternate leaf arrangement along the stem (at 

 least above) , and a somewhat smaller stature than 

 M. exiqua . A line drawing of this species is 

 presented on p. 20. 



