Cymopterus multinervatus

Purple-nerve cymopterus, Purple-Nerve Cymopterus

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Purple-nerve cymopterus is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native perennial found in the Mojave Desert on sandy and rocky slopes at elevations of 630 to 1,800 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces purple flowers with delicate, many-veined bracts forming a shallow green or purple sheath. Growing low to the ground with plants 4 to 20 centimeters tall and often with short underground stems, it has a distinctive glaucous and fleshy leaf structure. Its leaves are intricately dissected, with oblong-ovate blades 1 to 8.5 centimeters long, divided into fine, nearly indistinct segments 0.5 to 6 millimeters long. The fruit is an oblong-ovate structure 8 to 17 millimeters wide, with prominent wings two to three times the width of its central body.

Habitat: Sandy and rocky slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 630-1800 m

Bioregions: DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo

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