Cleomella parviflora

Slender cleomella

Family: Cleomaceae · Type: annual · Native

Slender cleomella is a California native annual found in the Great Basin and Mojave Desert bioregions in wet, alkaline meadows near thermal springs in sagebrush desert at elevations of 350 to 2,140 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces pale yellow flowers less than 2.5 millimeters long in slender racemes up to 30 centimeters long. Growing with branched stems 3 to 45 centimeters tall that are smooth and spreading from the base, it forms a delicate desert herb. Its few leaves have 5 to 35 millimeter linear-elliptic leaflets that are slightly fleshy and pale green. The fruit is a small capsule 3 to 4 millimeters long with cone-shaped valves.

Habitat: Wet, alkaline meadows near thermal springs in sagebrush desert

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: 350-2140 m

Bioregions: GB, DMoj

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

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