Dicoria canescens

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

{{Speciesbox

|image = Dicoria canescens.jpg

|status = {{TNCStatus}}

|status_system = TNC

|genus = Dicoria

|species = canescens

|authority = A.Gray

|synonyms_ref = [http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/gcc-96009 The Plant List, Dicoria canescens A.Gray ]

|synonyms =

• Dicoria brandegeei A.Gray
• Dicoria clarkae Kennedy
• Dicoria clarkiae P.B.Kenn.
• Dicoria hispidula Rydb.
• Dicoria oblongifolia Rydb.
• Dicoria paniculata Eastw.
• Dicoria wetherillii Eastw.

}}

Dicoria canescens is a North American flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by several common names including desert twinbugs and bugseed.{{cite book

|title=Introduction to California Desert Wildflowers

|author1=Philip A. Munz |author2=Diane L. Renshaw |author3=Phyllis M. Faber |publisher=University of California Press

|year=2004

|ISBN=0-520-23632-7

|pages=235

}} page 118 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.[http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-taxon=Dicoria+canescens Calflora taxon report, University of California, Dicoria canescens A. Gray, desert twinbugs ][http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Dicoria%20canescens.png Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map]Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert 2 vols. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

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".[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220004051 Flora of North America, Dicoria canescens A. Gray in W. H. Emory][https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91651#page/87/mode/1up Gray, Asa 1859. in Emory, William Hemsley, Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey made under the direction of the secretary of the Interior 2(1): page 87] description and commentary in English[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91651#page/303/mode/1up Gray, Asa 1859. in Emory, William Hemsley, Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey made under the direction of the secretary of the Interior 2(1): plate 30] full-page line drawing of Dicoria canescens[http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=3626 SEINEt, Southwest Biodiversity, Arizona Chapter, Dicoria canescens A. Gray, desert twinbugs] photos, description in English, distribution map