An erect annual with bristly or hairy stems 1 to 2 1/2 feet in height. Leaves are alternative, ovate or strap-shaped and bristly hairy, 1 to 4 inches long. Flowers are yellow and grouped along one side of a terminal inflorescence which curls at the tip having a fiddleneck appearance.
The calyx and corolla are 5-lobed, corolla funnel-shaped with 5 stamens attached to the tube.
Fruit is 4-lobed and breakes apart at maturity, forming 4 nutlets, each one-seeded.
Coast fiddelneck is a native of California and Oregon and is found in cultivated fields flowering in late spring. A related species is tarweed fiddleneck -
(A. lycopsoides Lehm.) which can be distinguished by well developed fornices (internal appendages in the upper throat of the corolla). Hay containing fiddelneck has been shown to be poisonous to livestock. |
