Descurainia paradisa

Great basin tansy mustard

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Great basin tansy mustard is a California native annual found in the Great Basin in sandy washes, dunes, and sagebrush scrub at elevations of 1,000 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pale yellow flowers less than 1.5 millimeters long with delicate spreading sepals. Growing with branched stems 15 to 32 centimeters tall that are sparsely to densely hairy, the plant develops intricate branching throughout its structure. Its leaves are pinnately lobed, with oblanceolate to obovate basal leaves having small ultimate lobes 1 to 5 millimeters long that are oblong or linear in shape. The fruit is an obovate pod 2.5 to 4 millimeters long with glabrous valves and a very short style.

Habitat: Sandy washes, dunes, sagebrush scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 1000-2300 m

Bioregions: GB

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