Euphorbia vallis-mortae

Death valley sandmat, Death Valley Sandmat

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Death valley sandmat is a California native perennial ranked 4.2 by CNPS, found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert regions in dry, sandy places at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces white petal-like appendages surrounding small green to yellow or reddish glands in distinctive cyathia at branch tips. Growing with prostrate to decumbent stems that repeatedly fork and spread in a two-faced pattern, it forms dense low-growing clusters up to several centimeters wide. Its opposite leaves are small, 4 to 6 millimeters long, with oblong to ovate blades that have asymmetric bases and obtuse tips. The fruit is a small 2-millimeter ovoid structure with subtle lobes, producing smooth white seeds less than 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Dry, sandy places

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj.

California counties: Kern, Inyo

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