Eremogone congesta

Ballhead sandwort, Ballhead Sandwort

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Ballhead sandwort is a California native perennial found in rocky, open areas at elevations of 1,000 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces white flowers in dense, head-like clusters with petals 5 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with tufted, glandular-hairy stems 8 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms compact green clumps in rocky terrain. Its leaves are narrow and sharp-tipped, measuring 10 to 80 millimeters long and only 0.5 to 2 millimeters wide, with a single prominent vein. The fruit contains 4 to 8 reddish-brown seeds, each 1.4 to 3 millimeters long with low, rounded tubercles.

California counties: Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, Trinity, Lake, Glenn, Mendocino, Shasta, Tehama, Humboldt, Del Norte, Tulare, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Plumas

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