Annuals, 5-50 cm (taprooted); herbage spicy-scented. Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely puberulent (in decurrent lines). Leaves linear to narrowly elliptic, 10-50 × 1-5 mm, margins with 1-3 pairs of setae, faces glabrous or sparsely puberulent (dotted on margins with round oil-glands 0.2-0.7 mm). Heads borne singly or in open, cymiform arrays. Peduncles 20-80 mm. Involucres campanulate. Phyllaries distinct, oblong or narrowly obovate, 4-7 × 1-2 mm (dotted with 0-2, subterminal oil-glands plus 2-4 pairs of inconspicuous, round to narrowly elliptic, submarginal oil-glands). Ray florets 8(-13); corollas 5-11 mm. Disc florets (7-)20-55; corollas 3.5-5 mm (2-lipped). Cypselae 3-4.5 mm, strigillose or short-pilose; ray pappi of 1-4, antrorsely barbed awns 1-4 mm or coroniform; disc pappi of 15-30, antrorsely barbed bristles 2.5-5 mm or coroniform. 2n = 24 (as P. palmeri).

Flowering Jul-Oct. Deserts, desert grasslands, arid scrub, dry woodlands; 600-1600 m; Ariz.; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Pectis rusbyi is much less common in Arizona than P. papposa var. papposa, with which it sometimes grows.

FNA 2006, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous annuals, to 50 cm tall, erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely puberulent in decurrent lines, herbage strongly aromatic and spicy-scented, plants taprooted. Leaves: Opposite, linear to narrowly elliptic, 10-50 mm long and 1-5 mm wide, margins entire, gland-dotted, with 1-3 pairs of small, stiff hairs, leaf faces glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Flowers: Heads small, radiate, rays yellow, 8-13, the corollas 5-11 mm, disk flowers yellow, 20-55, the corollas 2-lipped, involucres campanulate, phyllaries 8-10, oblong or narrowly obovate, in a single series, gland-dotted, heads mostly solitary at the branch tips and in stem axils and forks, the peduncles 20-80 mm long, usually considerably surpassing the leaves. Fruits: Achenes 3-4.5 mm, short-pilose. Pappus in the ray flowers of 1-4 slender awns or bristles, in the disk flowers of numerous short bristles, or reduced to a crown. Ecology: Found in deserts, desert grasslands, arid scrub, and dry woodlands, from 2,000-5,500 ft (610-1676 m); flowering August-September. Distribution: Arizona; Mexico. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Pectis is from the Greek pecteo, to comb, while rusbyi is named for Henry Hurd Rusby (185501940) and economic botanist who worked for the New York Botanical Garden. Synonyms: None Editor: LCrumbacher 2011