Skeletonleaf Goldeneye
Sidneya tenuifolia
FaFamily: Asteraceae
Herbaceous shrub/groundcover, reaching up to 4’ tall but often much shorter. Growing slightly wider than dall. The brightgreen, threadlike foliage provides a great backdrop for the quarter-sized, yellow daisy-like flowers produced during the summer and fall months. Plants will remain evergreen down into the 20’s, but will go dormant at lower temperatures.
Full to part sun, moderate to low water, hardy to about -10°F.
Nectar rich flowers attract numerous nectar-seeking insects. Moth larval host for the Muscosa sphinx moth (Manduca muscosa), Geometrid moths (family Geometridae), Giant tiger moth (Hypercompe scribonia), Hypocrisias tiger moth (Hypocrisias minima), and the domesticated Silkworm moth (Bombyx mori). Granivorous birds eat the seeds.
The genus name of Sidneya is in honour of Sidney Fay Blake (1892–1959), an American botanist and plant taxonomist. The specific epithet tenuiloba is derived from Latin words meaning "slender-lobed" or "narrow-lobed", referring to the plant's thin, deeply divided leaf lobes. Formerly known as Heliomeris longifolia and also Viguiera stenoloba (and often still sold under that name).
Found in thornscrub and open dry sites in southern Texas west to New Mexico, south into Mexico in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nayarit, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas.