Desert twinbugs is a small desert daisy from the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico that forms thickets in sandy soil. It grows best in full sun, very dry conditions and sandy, well-drained ground.
Family
Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly and let the soil dry out fully between waterings; it is adapted to desert rainfall.
Soil
Sandy, fast-draining desert soil or gritty cactus mix.
Temperature
Tolerates hot summers; protect from frost, as it is adapted to mild desert winters.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
SW. U.S.A. to NW. Mexico
Climate
temperate
About
Dicoria canescens is a North American flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by several common names including desert twinbugs and bugseed. This is a desert plant of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, found in Sonora, Baja California, southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, southwestern Colorado, and northwestern New Mexico.
Dicoria canescens forms thickets of many individuals in the desert sand. The distinctive lower leaves are long, pointed, sharply toothed, and covered in a coat of thin white or gray hairs. The upper leaves are smaller and more rounded. One plant can produce several whitish flower heads containing disc florets but no ray florets. Sometimes the heads form closely associated pairs, a characteristic which is the origin of the common name "twinbugs".
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dicoria canescens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.