title: Madia exigua
text: # Madia exigua
  
  Madia exigua is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names small tarweed and threadstem madia.
  
  ## Range
  
  Madia exigua is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California, where it grows in many types of dry habitat outside the deserts.
  
  ## Description
  
  Madia exigua is an aromatic annual herb growing up to half a meter (20") tall, its slender stem coated with hairs, large stalked resin glands, and sometimes bristles. The rough-haired leaves are 1 to 4 centimeters (0.4 to 1.6") long.
  
  The inflorescence is an array of clustered flower heads on thin, stiff peduncles. Each head has an involucre of phyllaries shaped like a top. The phyllaries are coated in knobby yellow resin glands. At the tip of the inflorescence are minute yellowish ray florets each under a millimeter long, and one or two yellow disc florets. The fruit is an achene with no pappus.
  
  