Introductory
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



ABBREVIATION : 
ACASPH

SYNONYMS : 
NO-ENTRY


SCS PLANT CODE : 
   ACSP
   ACSPH
   ACSPS2


COMMON NAMES : 
   rayless goldenhead


TAXONOMY : 
The currently accepted scientific name of rayless goldenhead is
Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus (Harv. & Gray) Gray (Asteraceae)
[7,10,20].  There are two recognized varieties:  Acamptopappus
sphaerocephlus var. sphaerocephlus and A. s. var. hirtellus Blake [10].


LIFE FORM : 
Shrub

FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS : 
No special status

OTHER STATUS : 
NO-ENTRY


COMPILED BY AND DATE : 
Randy Scott Griffith, June 1991.


LAST REVISED BY AND DATE : 
NO-ENTRY


AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION : 
Griffith, Randy Scott. 1991. Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus. In: Remainder of Citation

DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Rayless goldenhead occurs in desert regions of the southwestern United
States [7,10,20].  In the Mojave Desert it occurs in northwestern
Arizona, southeastern California, and southwestern Nevada.  It is also
found in the southern reaches of the Great Basin Desert in north-central
Arizona, western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Nevada,
and southern Utah [2,7,10,14].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES30  Desert shrub
   FRES33  Southwestern shrubsteppe
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES40  Desert grasslands


STATES : 
     AZ  CA  CO  NV  NM  UT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     DEVA  GLCA  GRCA  JOTR  LAME  ORPI
     ZION


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    4  Sierra Mountains
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
   12  Colorado Plateau


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K039  Blackbrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K041  Creosotebush
   K042  Creosotebush - bursage
   K057  Galleta - threeawn shrubsteppe


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    68  Mesquite
   239  Pinyon - juniper
   242  Mesquite


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Rayless goldenhead may be associated with catclaw acacia (Acacia
greggii), California juniper (Juniperus californica), scrub oak (Quercus
turbinella), Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), California buckwheat
(Eriogonum fasciculatum), golden cholla (Opuntia echinocarpa), and
Mojave yucca (Y. schidigera) [2,3].

VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Sheep browse rayless goldenhead when better forage is unavailable [7,15].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
NO-ENTRY


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
NO-ENTRY


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Browsing may significantly reduce the mean cover and mean shrub height of
rayless goldenhead.  Heavy browsing is more detrimental than light
browsing [15].

BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Rayless goldenhead is a native shrub.  Generally it is less than 3.3
feet (1 m) tall.  The stems are much branched with white bark; the bark
becomes shreddy with age.  The leaves are alternate, entire, and
spatulate.  Flowerheads are yellow, discoid, and arranged in a cyme.
The fruit is an achene [7,10,16,20].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Little information is availbale on rayless goldenhead reproduction.  All
the cyme flowers are fertile [16]; however, Young and Young [18]
reported "only limited germination at low incubation temperatures."
Seeds collected in Riverside County, California, and germinated in a
greenhouse showed "poor to good germination."  Outplanted seedlings
showed a 41 percent success rate after 2 or 3 years [22].  Sprouting
capacity of this species is unknown.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Rayless goldenhead occupies open, sandy to rocky bajadas, washes,
limestone ridges, dry plains, and mesas [7,12].  Its distribution is
clumped [3].

Soil:  Rayless goldenhead is found in Alfisol, Aridisol, and Mollisol
soil types [17].

Elevation:  Rayless goldenhead grows at elevations of 1,000 to 4,500
feet (305-1,370 m) in Arizona [7] and 200 to 7,260 feet (60-2,200 m) in
California [20].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Rayless goldenhead exhibited no distinct successional pattern on
disturbed sites in the Mohave Desert.  It is considered a short to
moderately long-lived species that may occur in disturbed to climax
creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) communities [14,21].  In some cases,
rayless goldenhead populations may increase rapidly when long-lived
species such as creosotebush, ragweed (Ambrosia dumosa), and Nevada
ephedra (Ephedra nevadensis) are reduced by disturbance [21].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Rayless goldenhead flowers from April to June in California [10] and
April to October in Arizona [7].

FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Since rayless goldenhead seed is dormant and species distribution is
clumped, rayless goldenhead probably establishes from on-site,
soil-stored seed.  There is no information available on rayless
goldenhead fire survivorship or postfire regeneration.


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
NO-ENTRY

FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 



DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 



DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
NO-ENTRY

REFERENCES
SPECIES: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead 



REFERENCES : 

 .  Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals,
       reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's
       associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO:
       U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p. 
       [434]

 .  Blake, John G. 1984. A seasonal analysis of bird communities in southern
       Nevada. Southwestern Naturalist. 29(4): 463-474.  [5849]

 .  Cody, M. L. 1986. Spacing patterns in Mojave Desert plant communities:
       near-neighbor analyses. Journal of Arid Environments. 11: 199-217. 
       [4411]

 .  Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
       Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p.  [905]

 .  Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
       1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
       ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
       Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p.  [998]

 .  Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of
       the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume
       II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
       Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie
       Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p.  [6954]

 .  Kearney, Thomas H.; Peebles, Robert H.; Howell, John Thomas; McClintock,
       Elizabeth. 1960. Arizona flora. 2d ed. Berkeley, CA: University of
       California Press. 1085 p.  [6563]

 .  Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
       of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
       American Geographical Society. 77 p.  [1384]

 .  Lyon, L. Jack; Stickney, Peter F. 1976. Early vegetal succession
       following large northern Rocky Mountain wildfires. In: Proceedings, Tall
       Timbers fire ecology conference and Intermountain Fire Research Council
       fire and land management symposium; 1974 October 8-10; Missoula, MT. No.
       14. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 355-373.  [1496]

.  Munz, Philip A. 1973. A California flora and supplement. Berkeley, CA:
       University of California Press. 1905 p.  [6155]

.  Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant
       geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p.  [2843]

.  Thorne, Robert F.; Prigge, Barry A.; Henrickson, James. 1981. A flora of
       the higher ranges and the Kelso Dunes of the eastern Mojave Desert in
       California. Aliso. 10(1): 71-186.  [3767]

.  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1994. Plants
       of the U.S.--alphabetical listing. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
       Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 954 p.  [23104]

.  Vasek, Frank C. 1979. Early successional stages in Mojave Desert scrub
       vegetation. Israel Journal of Botany. 28: 133-148.  [4579]

.  Webb, Robert H.; Stielstra, Steven S. 1979. Sheep grazing effects on
       Mojave Desert vegetation and soils. Environmental Management. 3(6):
       517-529.  [4164]

.  Welsh, Stanley L.; Atwood, N. Duane; Goodrich, Sherel; Higgins, Larry
       C., eds. 1987. A Utah flora. Great Basin Naturalist Memoir No. 9. Provo,
       UT: Brigham Young University. 894 p.  [2944]

.  West, N. E. 1983. Great Basin-Colorado plateau sagebrush semi-desert.
       In: Temperate deserts and semi-deserts. Amsterdam; Oxford; New York:
       Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company: 331-349. (Goodall, David W., ed.
       in chief; Ecosystems of the world; vol. 5).  [2505]

.  Young, James A.; Young, Cheryl G. 1986. Collecting, processing and
       germinating seeds of wildland plants. Portland, OR: Timber Press. 236 p.
       [12232]

.  Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern
       Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of
       Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire
       Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p.  [20090]

.  Hickman, James C., ed. 1993. The Jepson manual: Higher plants of
       California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 1400 p. 
       [21992]

.  Vasek, Frank C.; Barbour, Michael G. 1977. Mojave desert scrub
       vegetation. In: Barbour, M. G.; Major, J., eds. Terestrial vegetation of
       California. New York: John Wiley and Sons: 835-867.  [3730]

.  Everett, Percy C. 1957. A summary of the culture of California plants at
       the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden 1927-1950. Claremont, CA: The Rancho
       Santa Ana Botanic Garden. 223 p.  [7191]

Related categories for Species: Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus | Rayless Goldenhead