History:

Plant description:

• Perennial herb (~ 30cm tall), Spreading, Woody near the base, Covered with soft ashy wooly hairs
• Leaves alternate (~ 10-15mm long and ~ 0.3-0.8mm wide), linear, entire (or trifid at the apex) with glands hidden in the pubescence
• Peduncles (~ 1-3cm long), with ~ 0-3 foliaceous bracts
• Calyculum of three to four linear bracts about half as long as the phyllaries, with a gland near the base and often a second near the middle, wooly beneath, almost glabrous above
• Involucre campanulate (~ 5-10mm high and ~ 8mm across), white-wooly
• ~ 12-13 Phyllaries (~ 1.5-2mm long), joined ~ 3/4 of their length, apex triangular, with glands in the upper half to third
• Receptacle flat convex to nearly hemispheric, naked (or with a few fine bristles)
• ~ 10-15 Ray florets, bright golden yellow, tube (~ 2mm long), lamina oblong-oval(~ 6-8mm long and ~ 3-4mm wide), with two to three teeth at the tip
• ~ 30-70 Disc florets (~ 4.5-5mm long), yellow, funnel form, lobes ovate to triangular, erect
• Style branches with deltoid, hispidulous, cuspidate appendages
• Pappus of ~ 10-11 subequal scales (about as long as disc floret), each scale with a central awn and ~ 2-4 shorter lateral ones
• Achene cylindric-clavate (~ 2-4mm long), black, striate, sparsely pubescent

In 1935, Dr. S. F. Blake described the Ashy Dogweed, and in 1967 Dr. John Strother monographed its genus for his Ph. D. based on chromatographic methods. The United States National Herbarium houses the holotype of the Thymophlla Tephroleuca, and the University of Michigan Herbarium houses an isotype. The Ashy Dogweed was designated an endangered species in 1984 by the Endangered Species act of 1973. This species is also protected by the Lacey Act, which makes it unlawful to possess, import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any wild plant; including roots, seeds, and other parts within the United States or special maritime jurisdiction. The responsible federal agency is USFWS, and the responsible administrative Texas agency is Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The Thymophylla Tephroleuca has a valuable existence as a component of Texas’ natural heritage of biotic diversity, and therefore should be protected. The impacting factors on the plants’ decline have been habitat destruction and alteration by management practices of the ranching industry, Texas Highway Department, herbicides, and pipelines. The species also suffers from a low gene pool, and along with that and other natural factors, the species could face extinction. Future threats to the species are in the forms of highway widening and pipeline maintenance.

The recovery plan for the Thymophylla Tephroleuca is as follows:

1. Identify essential habitat required for species continuation.
2. Work with landowners of essential habitat to make them aware of the plants, an encourage them to manage their land to the benefit of the species.
3. Obtaining permanent protection of Thymophylla Tephroleuca at known sites.
4. Erecting and maintaining fences around the protected sites.
5. Developing management plans and monitoring the known populations.

1. Type of reproduction
2. Pollination biology
3. Seed dispersal
4. Seed biology
5. Seedling ecology
6. Survival and mortality