Chylismia brevipes

Yellow cups

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Yellow cups is a California native annual found in desert regions in sandy or rocky habitats. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces bright yellow flowers with occasionally red-dotted bases, opening at dawn in delicate nodding inflorescences. Growing with strigose stems 10 to 75 centimeters tall, it forms a slender, spreading plant with primarily basal leaves. Its leaves are simple to slightly pinnate, with terminal leaflets up to 6 centimeters long and lateral leaflets typically less than 1 centimeter. The fruit is a long cylindrical capsule 4 to 9 centimeters in length, ascending or spreading from thin pedicels.

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