Amsinckia tessellata is a species of fiddleneck known by the common names bristly fiddleneck, tessellate fiddleneck, checker fiddleneck, and devil's lettuce. The plant is native to dry regions of western North America, more specifically eastern Washington and Idaho, much of California and the Great Basin, to southwest New Mexico (U.S.) and northwest Sonora and Baja California in Mexico, usually below 6000 feet elevation. It is a common plant in many types of habitats, including chaparral, oak woodland, xeric scrub, temperate valleys, disturbed areas, and deserts including the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Compounds documented for Amsinckia tessellata across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Amsinckia tessellata has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens4
Marker genes3
GenBank sequences7
eDNA detections2
Countries2
The DNA barcodea real sequence read deposited for this species
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★matK1★rbcL1★ITS5
plant barcodefungal barcode
06Genome at a glanceCCDB
The complete instruction manualAmsinckia tessellata carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
CCDB · ipcn-api-dl — Schoen, D. J., M. O. Johnston, A. L'Heureux & J. V. Marsolais. 1997. Evolutionary history of the mating system in Amsinckia (Boraginaceae). Evolution 51: 1090–1099.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin5.04 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type3 479 records
Wild obs. + sensor1 570
Museum / vouchered1 909
Origin
Native217
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO9 812 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy91% within 1 km
≤100 m 941≤1 km 120≤10 km 64>10 km 43
1 168 georeferenced · 402 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor1 570
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy58% within 1 km
≤100 m 107≤1 km 352≤10 km 293>10 km 35
787 georeferenced · 1 122 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 909
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions70 of 99 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Claremont, US
250
Riverside, US
225
ASUlocation not on record
156
Bronx, US
124
Pullman, US
109
Santa Barbara, US
89
Corvallis, US
81
San Diego, US
59
WTUlocation not on record
53
Flagstaff, US
49
San Luis Obispo, US
49
Caldwell, US
44
Phoenix, US
42
Henderson, US
28
Davis, US
28
Moscow, US
26
US
24
Provo, US
23
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
23
Boise, US
23
EL PASO, US
23
DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record
21
Los Angeles, US
20
Arcata, US
17
LDlocation not on record
16
Irvine, US
15
Northridge, US
13
San Francisco, US
13
Albuquerque, US
11
Pocatello, US
9
Mexico City, MX
9
Severin-McDaniel Insect Collectionlocation not on record
8
Castelar, AR
8
Tampa, US
8
Orem, US
7
Bangkok, TH
7
Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalitionlocation not on record
7
San Jose, US
7
Portland, US
6
Wuzhou, CN
6
Long Beach, US
6
Bend, US
6
Angwin, US
6
MeiseBGlocation not on record
6
Mexico City, MX
5
Bloomington, US
5
Logan, US
5
Bureau of Land Managementlocation not on record
4
Fredericton Stock Culture Collectionlocation not on record
4
San Bernardino, US
4
Musee des Dinosaures d'Esperaza (Aude)location not on record
4
Olocation not on record
4
Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record
3
Clemson, US
3
Cheney, US
3
VALElocation not on record
3
Saint Louis, US
3
DOI/NPS, Colonial National Historical Parklocation not on record
3
Austin, US
3
Turlock, US
3
Vancouver, CA
3
IDElocation not on record
2
INFlocation not on record
2
DOI/NPS, Greenbelt Parklocation not on record
2
The University of Arizonalocation not on record
2
Arizona State University Biocollectionslocation not on record
2
Hermosillo, MX
2
San Jose State University, Museum of Birds and Mammalslocation not on record
2
Madison, US
2
Tacoma, US
2
Santa Cruz, US
2
Missoula, US
1
Kew, GB
1
USFSlocation not on record
1
Columbia, US
1
Burlington, US
1
Tokushima, JP
1
Macomb, US
1
Durango, US
1
University of British Columbia, Herbariumlocation not on record
1
Turku, FI
1
Wellington, NZ
1
Bozeman, US
1
Toronto, CA
1
Weber State Universitylocation not on record
1
Tsukuba, JP
1
Dekalb, US
1
Arizona Western Collegelocation not on record
1
Baltimore, US
1
UChlocation not on record
1
Pomona Collegelocation not on record
1
San Angelo, US
1
Mississippi State, US
1
Pittsburg, US
1
Walla Walla, US
1
Mérida, MX
1
GB
1
McWane Science Centerlocation not on record
1
DOI/NPS, Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preservelocation not on record
1
99 institutions · 1 870 of 1 909 vouchered records shown · 39 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA2 detections
Where the DNA of Amsinckia tessellata was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found2
Studies independent surveys1
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 2 detections have coordinates
Open the map0 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation2 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility3 479 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI2 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics4 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗