Deinandra arida

Red rock tarplant

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Red rock tarplant is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native annual found in the western Mojave Desert Mountains, specifically in the El Paso Mountains and eastern Kern County, in washes, canyon slopes, and near springs at elevations of 600 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to November, this plant produces deep yellow ray flowers 5 to 7 millimeters long in clustered heads with distinctive glandular bracts. Growing 20 to 80 centimeters tall with branching stems, it forms open panicle-like clusters of flower heads. Its proximal leaves are toothed to entire, bristly, and coarse-hairy with stalked glandular surfaces. The plant has 17 to 25 disk flowers, with most being staminate and featuring yellow to brownish anthers.

Habitat: Washes, canyon slopes, edges of springs, seeps

Bloom period: Apr-Nov

Elevation: 600-1000 m

Bioregions: w DMoj (El Paso Mtns, e Kern Co.).

California counties: Kern

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