Krameria erecta

Pima rhatany, purple heather, little-leaved rhatany, Little-Leaved Rhatany

Family: Krameriaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pima rhatany is a California native perennial found in the eastern Peninsular Range, including the Santa Rosa Mountains, and desert regions on dry, rocky ridges and slopes at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces magenta sepals and yellow to green flag petals with distinctive purple markings. Growing with strigose or silky-hairy stems up to 2 meters tall and often with ascending branches, it has a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are approximately linear to lance-linear, sparse and narrow. The fruit is uniquely cordate and slightly flattened, reflecting the plant's intricate desert adaptation.

Habitat: Dry, rocky ridges, slopes

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: e PR (Santa Rosa Mtns), D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial

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