Antirrhinum mohavea

Golden desert snapdragon

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Golden desert snapdragon is a California native annual found in the Mojave Desert in gravelly desert slopes and washes at elevations below 1,850 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces bright yellow flowers 15 to 20 millimeters long with a distinctive maroon blotch on the lower lip and finely purple-dotted upper lip. Growing with erect, self-supporting stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall and covered in glandular hairs throughout, the plant has a delicate desert adaptation. Its leaves range from 15 to 40 millimeters long, varying from linear to lanceolate or ovate with acute tips. The fragile fruit is obliquely ovoid and 8 to 10 millimeters long, containing flat, smooth seeds with an incurved wing.

Habitat: Gravelly desert slopes, washes

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 1850 m

Bioregions: DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles

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