Mentzelia torreyi

Torrey's blazing star

Family: Loasaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Torrey's blazing star is a rare California native perennial ranked 2B.2 by CNPS, found in the southern eastern California desert regions in sandy to alkaline slopes, scrub, and pinyon woodland at elevations of 900 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces orange to pale yellow flowers 9 to 15 millimeters long with oblanceolate petals. Growing with multiple stems 10 to 20 centimeters tall emerging from a thick caudex, the plant has erect to decumbent stems covered in fine hairs. Its leaves are 2 to 4 centimeters long, deeply pinnate-lobed with zero to seven narrow linear lobes and margins rolled under. The fruit is an urn-shaped capsule 4 to 8 millimeters long, gradually narrowing towards the top.

Habitat: Sandy to alkaline fine-textured, slopes, scrub, pinyon woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 900-2100 m

Bioregions: SNE

California counties: Mono, Inyo

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