Nemacladus matsonii

Owen's valley nemacladus, matson's nemacladus

Family: Campanulaceae · Type: annual · Native

Owen's valley nemacladus is a California native annual found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert on compact sands and stabilized dunes at elevations of 800 to 1,900 meters. Flowering from April to June, this delicate plant produces cream-colored flowers with a distinctive yellow throat and tiny magenta-tipped stamens. Growing with erect, slender stems 7 to 16 centimeters tall that branch from the base, it forms a delicate, zigzag-like structure. Its small leaves, 2 to 8 millimeters long, are ovate to obovate, with surfaces that vary from glabrous to sparsely hairy. The fruit is nearly spherical, measuring 2 to 3 millimeters long, with a rounded base and tip.

Habitat: Compact sands and stabilized dunes

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 800-1900 m

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