Crassula connata

Pygmy-weed

Family: Crassulaceae · Type: annual · Native

Pygmy-weed is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Sierra Nevada foothills, Great Valley, central and southwestern California, western Mojave Desert, and Sonoran Desert in open areas at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces tiny white to greenish-white flowers less than 1.5 millimeters long, clustered two per node. Growing with delicate erect stems 2 to 10 centimeters tall that turn reddish with age, it forms compact, branched or unbranched clusters. Its small leaves are ovate to oblong, measuring 1 to 3 millimeters long with acute to rounded tips. The fruit develops as a small ascending ovoid structure containing one to two shiny elliptical seeds with wavy longitudinal lines.

Habitat: Open areas

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SNF, GV, CW, SW, w DMoj, DSon

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Ventura, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Yuba, San Luis Obispo, Butte, Orange, San Diego, Monterey, Lake, El Dorado, Marin, Tulare, San Francisco, Fresno, Imperial, Colusa, Humboldt, Calaveras, Sutter, Amador, Alameda, Sonoma, Del Norte, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Solano, Placer, Tehama, Glenn, Trinity

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