Mentzelia tridentata

Creamy blazing star, Creamy Blazing Star

Family: Loasaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.3

Creamy blazing star is a rare (CNPS 1B.3) California native annual found in the central Mojave Desert in creosote-bush scrub at elevations of 700 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces white to pale-yellow flowers with widely obovate petals 10 to 40 millimeters long, featuring delicate mucronate tips. Growing 5 to 25 centimeters tall with erect, hairy stems, the plant develops distinctively wavy to toothed lanceolate leaves 1 to 9 centimeters long. Its leaves are petioled with a characteristic oblanceolate shape, varying from smooth to slightly serrated edges. The fruit is an erect to reflexed cylindric capsule 9 to 18 millimeters long, containing small ashy-white seeds with a distinctive beak.

Habitat: Creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 700-1300 m

Bioregions: c DMoj.

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern

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