Hesperevax caulescens

Hogwallow starfish, Hogwallow Starfish

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Hogwallow starfish is a native annual herb found in the northern California Coast Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, southern Coast Ranges, and southwestern Peninsular Ranges at elevations below 300 meters in vernal pool habitats and clay flats. Flowering from March to June, this delicate plant produces small white flowers in compact heads 3 to 5 millimeters wide, arranged in dense clusters of 10 to 40 groups. Growing with stems typically very short or occasionally up to 8 centimeters tall, the plant has erect to decumbent growth habit. Its leaves are distinctively longer toward the plant's tip, with blade lengths of 33 to 90 millimeters and widths of 7 to 20 millimeters, featuring strongly thickened bases. The fruit is generally 1.5 to 2 millimeters long, reflecting the plant's diminutive and delicate nature.

Habitat: Declining. Drying shrink-swell clay of vernal pools, flats, steep slopes (sometimes serpentine)

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 300(500) m

Bioregions: NCoRI, CaRF, n&amps SNF, GV, SCoRO, sw PR (reportedly alien, likely extirpated).

California counties: Butte, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Yuba, Tehama, Colusa, Contra Costa, Merced, Stanislaus, Sutter, Yolo, Glenn, Fresno, Kern, Alameda, Monterey, Tuolumne, Sacramento

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