Shortray Zinnia

A. M. Torres (1963) speculated that Zinnia anomala, which often lacks rays or has inconspicuous rays, might be an octoploid derivative of the rather similar Z. grandiflora, which has showy yellow rays.

Subshrubs, to 12 cm (rounded). Stems yellowish, much branched, strigose. Leaf blades 1- or 3-nerved, linear, 15–30 × 1–4 mm, strigose. Peduncles to 25 mm. Involucres broadly cylindric, 8–10 × 8–10 mm. Phyllaries round to oblong, becoming scarious, appressed-hairy distally, apices rounded, ciliate. Paleae yellowish (often red-tipped), apices obtuse, erose. Ray florets 0 or 5–8; corollas yellow, laminae suborbiculate to ovate, 0–6(–9) mm. Disc florets ca. 20; corollas reddish, 5.5–6.2 mm, lobes 1 mm. Cypselae 7–8 (ray) or 3–6 mm (disc), 3-angled (ray) or compressed (disc), ribbed, distally ciliate or scabrellous; pappi usually of 2 or 3 equal or unequal awns. 2n = ca. 48, ca. 84.

Zinnia anomala is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, with the common name shortray zinnia. It is native to western Texas in the United States and also to the States of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Zacatecas in northern Mexico.

Zinnia anomala is a profusely branched subshrub perennial up to 12 cm (8 inches) tall. Leaves are very narrow, up to 3 cm (1.2 inches) long. The plant produces only one flower head per branch, each head containing about 20 red disc florets, sometimes with no ray florets, other times with 5-8 yellow rays.