Townsendia aprica is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

 known by the common name Last Chance Townsend daisy. It is endemic to Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 in the United States, where it is known from three counties. It faces a number of threats and it is a federally listed threatened species of the United States.

This plant is a perennial herb forming a clump just a few centimeters wide and one or two centimeters tall. The rough-haired spatula-shaped leaves are generally under a centimeter long but may be slightly longer. The flower heads

Head (botany)

The capitulum is considered the most derived form of inflorescence. Flower heads found outside Asteraceae show lesser degrees of specialization....

 lie directly on top of the clump rather than erect on stalks. Each head contains up to 21 ray florets roughly half a centimeter long. They are yellow orange in color, aging cream or white. The flower gets its species name from the apricot

Apricot (color)

Apricot is a light yellowish-orangeish color that attempts to represent the color of apricots. Actually, it is somewhat paler than actual apricots....

 shade of its ray florets. There are many disc florets at the center. The fruit is an achene

Achene

An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...

 with a pappus

Pappus (flower structure)

The pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual disk, ray or ligule floret surrounding the base of the corolla, in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae. The pappus may be composed of bristles , awns, scales, or may be absent. In some species, the pappus is too small to see...

 of scales; the ray and disc florets produce fruits that differ in appearance. The flowers are pollinated

Pollination

Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...

 by several species of bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

s, including Ceratina nanula, Synhalonia fulvitarsis, Dioxys pomonae, Stelis pavonina, and many species of Osmia

Mason bee

Mason bee is a common name for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood boring insects....

.

The plant was discovered in 1966 near Last Chance Creek south of the Fremont Junction in Utah. Today there are 15 known occurrences in Sevier

Sevier County, Utah

As of the census of 2000, there were 18,842 people, 6,081 households, and 4,907 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,016 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile...

, Wayne

Wayne County, Utah

Wayne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. It was formed from Piute County in 1892. The county gets its name from a man who served as delegate to the constitutional convention, in honor of his son who was dragged to death by a horse. As of 2000 the population was 2,509, and by...

, and Emery Counties

Emery County, Utah

Emery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000 the population was 10,860, and by 2009 had been estimated to decrease to 10,629. It was named for George W. Emery, governor of the Utah Territory in 1875...

 for a total of about 6000 plants. Some occurrences are in the San Rafael Swell

San Rafael Swell

The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, USA about 30 miles west of Green River, Utah. The San Rafael Swell, approximately by , consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide...

 and there is one in Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park is a United States National Park, in south-central Utah. It is 100 miles long but fairly narrow. The park, established in 1971, preserves 378 mi² and is open all year, although May through September are the most popular months.Called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s...

. The plants occur in sparsely vegetated openings in pinyon-juniper woodland habitat. They are generally restricted to pockets of shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 lens

Lens (geology)

In geology a lens is a body of ore or rock or a deposit that is thick in the middle and thin at the edges, resembling a convex lens in cross-section. Adjective: "lenticular"....

 soils surrounded by less hospitable soil types. The shale soil is derived from the Mancos Formation

Mancos Shale

The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is an Upper Cretaceous geologic formation of the Western United States dominated by mudrock that accumulated in offshore and marine environments of the Cretaceous North American Inland Sea. The Mancos was deposited during the Cenomanian through Campanian ages,...

 and is silty and alkaline

Alkali soils

Alkali, or alkaline, soils are clay soils with high pH , a poor soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 metre depth. Alkali soils owe their unfavorable physico-chemical properties mainly to the dominating presence of sodium carbonate...

. Other plants in the habitat include blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), black sagebrush

Artemisia nova

Artemisia nova is a species of sagebrush known by the common name black sagebrush.It is native to the western United States from California to Montana to New Mexico, where it grows in forest, woodland, and grassland habitats. It is "one of the most common shrubs in the western United States"...

 (Artemisia nova), shadscale

Atriplex confertifolia

Atriplex confertifolia is a species of evergreen shrub in the Chenopodiaceae family, which is native to the western United States.-Habitat:Shadscale is a common, often dominant, shrub in the lowest and driest areas of the Great Basin...

 (Atriplex confertifolia), and snakeweed

Gutierrezia sarothrae

Gutierrezia sarothrae is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common names broom snakeweed and perennial matchweed. It is native to much of the western half of North America, from central Canada to northern Mexico...

 (Gutierrezia sarothrae). Other rare plants in the area include Despain's pincushion cactus

Pediocactus despainii

Pediocactus despainii is a rare species of cactus known by the common names Despain's pincushion cactus, Despain footcactus, and San Rafael cactus. It is endemic to the state of Utah in the United States, where it is limited to the San Rafael Swell in Emery County. There are two populations...

 (Pediocactus despainii), Wright's fishhook cactus

Sclerocactus wrightiae

Sclerocactus wrightiae is a rare species of cactus known by the common name Wright's fishhook cactus. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where it is known from Emery, Sevier, Wayne, and Garfield Counties. It occurs at Capitol Reef National Park and the San Rafael Swell...

 (Sclerocactus wrightiae), and Barneby reed-mustard

Schoenocrambe barnebyi

Schoenocrambe barnebyi is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names Barneby reed-mustard, Syes Butte plainsmustard, and Barneby thelypody. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where it is known only from Emery and Wayne Counties. It is threatened by...

 (Schoenocrambe barnebyi).

Threats to this species include construction of roads, livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 grazing

Grazing

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...

 and trampling, off-road vehicle

Off-road vehicle

An off-road vehicle is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with deep, open treads, a flexible suspension, or even caterpillar tracks...

 use, and petroleum exploration and development. Coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 was a particularly severe threat when the plant was added to the Endangered Species List. Most populations of the plant are on land laced with seams of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

.