Aliciella monoensis

Mono lake aliciella

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Mono lake aliciella is a California native annual found in the southeastern Sierra Nevada and eastern Mojave Desert in sandy soils, sagebrush scrub, and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white flowers with lavender streaks and yellow spots, 4 to 7 millimeters long with a distinctive expanded yellow-spotted throat. Growing 5 to 30 centimeters tall with spreading branches and a skunk-like odor, it has densely glandular-puberulent stems. Its basal leaves form an erect cluster 1 to 7 centimeters long, with 1-pinnate lobes that have widely obtuse to pointed tips, while cauline leaves are simple and linear. The ovoid fruit is 3 to 5 millimeters long with a pointed tip, containing 21 to 36 seeds.

Habitat: Sandy soils, sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 500-2500 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj

California counties: Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.