Antirrhinum confertiflorum

Ghost flower

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Ghost flower is a California native annual found in desert region of California (excluding Inyo County) on gravelly or sandy desert slopes and washes at elevations below 1,250 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces white to pale yellow flowers with intricate purple-dotted lips and a distinctive maroon and yellow blotch on the lower lip. Growing with erect, self-supporting stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall that are glandular-hairy throughout, it has a delicate and slender appearance. Its leaves are 20 to 65 millimeters long, ranging from linear to lanceolate or ovate with acute tips. The fragile fruit is obliquely ovoid and 10 to 12 millimeters long, containing small flat seeds with an incurved, cup-shaped wing.

Habitat: Gravelly or sandy desert slopes, washes

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 1250 m

Bioregions: D (exc Inyo Co.)

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego, Inyo, Kern

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