Proboscidea is a genus of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae, some of whose species are known as devil's claw, devil's horn, ram's horn, or unicorn plant. The plants produce long, hooked seed pods. The hooks catch on the feet of animals, and as the animals walk, the pods are ground or crushed open, dispersing the seeds. The name devil's claw is shared with the South African plant Harpagophytum procumbens.
Lycium andersonii is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its common names include water-jacket, redberry desert-thorn, Anderson thornbush, Anderson's desert thorn, Anderson boxthorn, Anderson lycium, Anderson wolfberry, and squawberry.
Vaccinium stamineum, commonly known as deerberry, tall deerberry, squaw huckleberry, highbush huckleberry, buckberry, and southern gooseberry, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is native to North America, including Ontario, the eastern and central United States, and parts of Mexico. It is most common in the southeastern United States.
Cryptantha circumscissa is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name cushion cryptantha. It is native to western North America from Washington to Baja California to Colorado, where it grows in many types of habitat from mountains to desert. It is also known from Argentina. This is an annual herb producing a short, bristly, multibranched stem tangled into a mat no more than 10 centimeters tall. It grows from a red taproot which dries purple. The leaves are up to 1.5 centimeters long, linear to widely lance-shaped, and densely hairy to bristly. The inflorescence is a length of developing fruits with a dense cluster of up to 5 flowers at the tip. The flower has a five-lobed white corolla with yellow appendages at the top of its tube.
Cryptantha flavoculata is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name roughseed cryptantha. It is native to the western United States from California to Montana, where it is common in many types of habitat. It is a perennial herb growing an unbranching stem up to about 35 centimeters tall from a woody caudex. It is coated in soft bristly hairs. The densely hairy to bristly leaves vary in shape and may reach 11 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a cylindrical cluster or rounded head of flowers which elongates as the fruits develop from the bottom up. Each tubular flower is about a centimeter long topped with a five-lobed white corolla with yellow appendages at the center.
Proboscidea althaeifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae known by the common names desert unicorn-plant and yellow-flowered devil's claw. It is native to the desert southwest of the United States, where it grows in sandy habitat and blooms during the hot summer. This is a perennial herb growing from a thick, tuberlike yellow root. The stem is decumbent, creeping along the ground. The shiny leaves have rounded, oval, or roughly triangular blades up to 7 centimeters long which are deeply lobed and wavy along the edges. The inflorescence is an array of many showy, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers with five lobes flaring several centimeters wide. The flower is yellow to orange or apricot with an intricate pattern of speckles and streaks, its lower lobe lined with a nectar guide. The fruit is a large seed pod many centimeters long, a cylindrical body tapering into a very long, thin, curving tail. As the fruit dries the tail cracks open and splits into two hooked, claw-like halves. These hard, dry fruits were used as tools by local Native Americans.
Proboscidea parviflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae known by the common names doubleclaw and red devil's-claw. It is native to the desert southwest of the United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy, dry, and disturbed habitat and blooms during the hot summer. This is an annual herb growing from a taproot and producing sprawling, spreading stems. The leaves have rounded, oval, or roughly triangular blades up to 15 centimetres (6 in) long which have smooth edges or faint lobes or teeth. The inflorescence is an array of several showy bell-shaped flowers with five lobes flaring several centimeters wide. The flower is white to pink or purple, sometimes with mottling or lines of spots in the throat, and often a purple blotch on the upper lip. A yellow nectar guide extends along the lower lip. The fruit is a large seed pod many centimeters long, a cylindrical body tapering into a very long, thin, curving tail. As the fruit dries the tail cracks open and splits into two hooked, claw-like halves. The young fruits and seeds were used for food and the dark-colored hardened dry fruits were used in basketry by local Native Americans.
Ibicella lutea is a species of flowering plant known by the common name yellow unicorn-plant. It grows in dry conditions, such as those in desert regions. It is native to South America, but has become established as a non-native species in various semi-arid regions around the world, including Southern Africa and the Central Valley of California. The plant is aromatic, with an unpleasant scent. It produces short, glandular hairs over most of its aerial surfaces and is coated in sticky resin. Insects often become stuck in the slimy exudate and die, but the plant does not have digestive enzymes and does not absorb nutrients from the insects. The plant can be considered protocarnivorous, but it is not carnivorous.
Rudbeckia occidentalis is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name western coneflower. It is native to the northwestern United States from Washington to northern California and east to Wyoming and Montana, where it grows in moist habitat types, such as meadows. It is an erect perennial herb growing from a thick rhizome, its mostly unbranched stem approaching two meters in maximum height. The large leaves are generally oval but pointed, and lightly to deeply toothed along the edges, growing to 30 centimeters long. The inflorescence is one or more flower heads with purplish bases up to 6 centimeters wide. There are no ray florets, just an array of reflexed phyllaries around the purple-brown center packed with disc florets. This center, containing the receptacles, lengthens to several centimeters in length as the fruits develop. The fruits are achenes each a few millimeters long, some tipped with pappi of tiny scales.
Senecio blochmaniae is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names dune ragwort and Blochman's ragwort. It is endemic to the Central Coast of California, where it is known only from the direct coastline of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. It grows in sand dunes and sandy areas on coastal floodplains. It is a subshrub producing several arching stems often well exceeding a meter tall from a thick taproot. The stems are covered in many leaves, which are linear in shape, thick, and measure up to 12 centimeters long. The lower leaves become dry and curl up. The flower heads are lined by about 13 green-tipped phyllaries. They contain many yellow disc florets and each has usually 8 narrow yellow ray florets about a centimeter long.
Silene gallica is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by several common names, including common catchfly, small-flowered catchfly, and windmill pink. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but it can be found throughout much of the temperate world as a common roadside weed. It is an annual herb growing up to 40 or 45 centimeters tall, its branching stem coated in long, curling hairs and shorter, glandular hairs. The lance-shaped leaves are up to 3.5 centimeters long low on the plant, and smaller on the upper parts. Flowers occur in a terminal inflorescence at the top of the stem, and some appear in the leaf axils. Each flower has a tubular calyx of fused sepals lined with ten green or purple-red veins. It is coated in long hairs. It is open at the tip, revealing five white, pink or bicolored petals, each with a small appendage at the base.
Sporobolus airoides is a species of grass known by the common name alkali sacaton. It is native to western North America, including the Western United States west of the Mississippi River, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, and northern and central Mexico. It grows in many types of habitat, often in alkali soils, such as in California desert regions.
Sporobolus contractus is a species of grass known by the common name spike dropseed. It is native to western North America, including the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It grows in desert and plateau habitat, in woodlands, scrub, and dry, sandy, open areas.
Sporobolus cryptandrus is a species of grass known by the common name sand dropseed. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in southern Canada, most of the United States, and northern Mexico.
Sporobolus flexuosus is a species of grass known by the common name mesa dropseed. It is native to western North America, where it can be found in the deserts and woodlands of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.
Sporobolus indicus is a species of grass known by the common name smut grass.
Sporobolus vaginiflorus is a species of grass known by the common names poverty grass, poverty dropseed, and sheathed dropseed.
Stylocline micropoides is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names woollyhead neststraw, woollyhead fanbract and desert neststraw. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern areas in the northern states of Mexico, where it grows in desert habitat and other dry areas. It is a small annual herb growing at ground level with stems up to 20 centimeters in length. It is woolly or felt-like in texture with a coating of white hairs. The pointed leaves are up to 2 centimeters long and alternately arranged. The inflorescence bears spherical flower heads no more than a centimeter in diameter. The head generally has no phyllaries, or has small ones that fall away early. It contains several woolly white flowers.
Sporobolus texanus is a species of grass known by the common name Texas dropseed. It is native to the western United States.
Proboscidea louisianica is a species of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae. Its true native range is unclear, but probably includes parts of the southwestern United States and Mexico in North America. It occurs in other areas, including other regions in North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa, as an introduced species. It is the most widely distributed species in its family. Common names it shares with other Proboscidea species include devil's claw and unicorn-plant. Names more specific to the species include common devil's claw, ram's horn, aphid trap, Louisiana unicorn-plant, purple-flowered devil's-claw, goat's head, and elephant tusks.
