Mentzelia polita

Polished blazing star, Polished Blazing Star

Family: Loasaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Polished blazing star is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in the eastern Mojave Desert, specifically in the northeastern Clark Mountain Range, inhabiting washes and limestone or gypsum-rich soils at elevations of 1,200 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces white to pale or golden-yellow flowers 8 to 11 millimeters long with rounded tips. Growing 12 to 33 centimeters tall with erect to decumbent stems that are much branched and glabrous to slightly hairy, it emerges from a branched taproot. Its leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic, 1.5 to 8.5 centimeters long and generally entire, ranging from 2 to 10 millimeters wide. The fruit is an erect, cup-shaped structure 4.5 to 9 millimeters long, containing pale gray or light brown seeds with white to light brown wings.

Habitat: Washes, limestone, +- white gypsum-rich soils

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 1200-1500 m

Bioregions: e DMoj (ne Clark Mtn Range)

California counties: San Bernardino

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