Boerhavia coulteri var. palmeri

Coulter's spiderling

Family: Nyctaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Coulter's spiderling is a California native annual found in the Channel Islands, southeastern Desert Mountains, and Sonoran Desert in gravelly hillsides, washes, and arid grasslands at elevations of 90 to 1,540 meters. Flowering from mid-summer to early fall, this plant produces delicate pink flowers with rounded perianth. Growing with purplish, decumbent to ascending stems that spread low across the ground, it has a distinctive prostrate growth habit. Its leaves are subtly arranged along the stems, complementing the plant's sprawling form. The fruit develops in well-spaced clusters, with individual segments 2 to 2.4 millimeters long and typically having rounded tips.

Habitat: gravelly hillsides, washes, arid grasslands

Bloom period: Mid summer-early fall

Elevation: 90-1540 m

Bioregions: ChI (possibly introduced), se DMoj (desert mtns and lower montane slopes), DSon

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

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