Biorepository Data Portal

Wiggins 1964

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Perennial from deeply set tuberous root, shoots emerging with summer rains, stems and petioles semi-succulent and viscid-sticky. Leaves: Often with petioles 4-11 cm long, blades 2-6 cm, broadly ovate to orbicular or kidney-shaped and shallowly lobed. Flowers: Flowers 4 cm, showy, corollas bright yellow inside tube and on lobes with brown-purple speckles and dark yellow-orange nectar guides, tube often bronze colored outside. Fruits: Capsule body 4-6.6 cm, claws 9-14 cm. Seeds 6-9 mm, obovoid, blackish and warty. Ecology: Found on sandy-gravelly soils of arroyos, washes, below 4,500 ft (1372 m); flowers May-August. Distribution: s CA, AZ, NM, s TX; south to n MEX. Notes: Notably, black seeds are only found in the native, undomesticated species. This species is distinctive with its yellow flowers. Ethnobotany: Widely eaten, both seeds and fruit. When young, fruit is similar to okra. Seri peeled the fleshy root and ate the cortex. Used for basketry. Etymology: Proboscidea is from Greek proboskis, elephant-s trunk, and althaeifolia means with leaves like the genus Althaea. Synonyms: Martynia althaeifolia, Martynia arenaria, Proboscidea arenaria Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015