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How to Manage Pests
Identification: Weed Photo Gallery
Fiddlenecks
Scientific name: Amsinckia spp. (Family Boraginaceae)
Other common names: Common fiddleneck, coast fiddleneck, rancher's fireweed, yellow burnweed, yellow burweed, yellow forget-me-not, yellow tarweed, zaccoto gordo
Click on image to enlarge
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DESCRIPTION:
Fiddlenecks are hairy, single or few-stemmed winter annuals that form distinctive flowering heads
curled like the neck of a fiddle. They are toxic to animals. Seedlings have "Y" shaped cotyledons
with tiny blisters and a few fine hairs. Early leaves have coarse, sharp hairs and are 4 to 6 times
as long as wide. Mature plants may reach 3.5 feet (105 cm). Leaves are lance-shaped, coarse to the
touch, hairy, and alternate on the stem. The plant produces yellow, funnel-shaped, five-lobed flowers
on one side of a curled flower spike. At maturity, the four-lobed fruit breaks apart into four
one-seeded nutlets. Coast fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia, shown in the photos here)
and common fiddleneck (A. Douglasiana) are very similar, but coast fiddleneck has gray nutlets while
common fiddleneck has brown or black nutlets.
Broadleaf ID illustration.
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