Chaenactis macrantha

Mojave pincushion, Mojave Pincushion

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Mojave pincushion is a California native annual found in the northern edge of the Tehachapi Range, southern eastern Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert on open, silty, often gravel-covered soils at elevations of 600 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from March to July, this delicate plant produces white to cream or pale pink flowers in small heads that open gracefully at night. Growing with slender branching stems 5 to 25 centimeters tall, it has a distinctive appearance with cobwebby gray hairs covering its proximal parts. Its leaves are intricately divided, with elliptic to ovate blades featuring 2 to 5 pairs of flat-tipped lobes and gland-pitted surfaces. The plant produces small fruits 5 to 6 millimeters long, topped with a delicate pappus of 8 unequal scales.

Habitat: Open, silty, often gravel-covered, calcareous or alkaline soils

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 600-2200 m

Bioregions: n edge TR, s SNE, DMoj

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