Nemacladus richardsiae

Temescal threadplant

Family: Campanulaceae · Type: annual · Native

Temescal threadplant is a California native annual found in sandy flats and creosote bush scrub along alluvial fans at elevations of 300 to 500 meters. Flowering from March to June, this delicate plant produces pale pink or cream flowers with distinctive wide pink stripes and an orange-bordered pale yellow spot at the base of its lobes. Growing 5 to 15 centimeters tall with erect stems and branches primarily emerging above the base, it develops slender, lance-shaped leaves 1 to 7 millimeters long that are either glabrous or densely hairy. Its leaves are characteristically lanceolate to diamond-shaped, with shallow crenations or a few sharp teeth that narrow toward the petiole. The fruit is a small, oblong-ovoid structure approximately 3 to 3.5 millimeters long with a rounded base and blunt tip.

Habitat: Sandy flats on alluvial fans, creosote bush scrub, washes

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 300-500 m

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