Sclerocarpus uniserialis

Common Names

Mexican Bonebract

Summary

Mexican bonebract is native to Texas and extends south along the Eastern Sierra Madre into southern Mexico, the Yucatan, and Guatemala, with presence reported in Belize and Central America; it commonly inhabits disturbed habitats from sea level to about 2100 m. The plant is an erect, usually annual herb with densely hairy stems and 2–5 cm leaves with toothed margins, and it features heads with yellow ray florets surrounding disc florets usually yellow with reddish veins; ray florets are 5–15 mm long and rotundly elliptic. Paleae inside the heads wrap around the bases of the disc florets and later harden and shed with the fruit, forming sclerocarps around the one-seeded cypsela, and a beak-like projection appears on mature fruits, with up to nine leaflike involucral bracts below the heads.

In cultivation, the species grows in disturbed sites with caliche, limestone, and sandy soils from 0 to about 2100 m elevation; it is drought-tolerant and low maintenance, sometimes used in gardens, and noted as a weed in cultivated crops such as tomato, corn, mango, okra, and luffa. Traditional medicine uses include infusions of branches by Huastec Téenek people to treat diarrhea, and the plant is also reported as animal feed for horses.

Lifecycle

Annual; sometimes perennial.

Height

2 ft – 6 ft 7 in

Sunlight Requirements

Ideally full sun.

Soil Type

Sandy soil

Soil Drainage

Well-drained

Bloom Color

Yellow

Bloom Time

Fall

Foliage Color

Green

Fall Foliage Color

Yellow

Growth Rate

Annual

Seasons of Interest

Summer, Fall, Winter

Propagation Methods

Seeds