Nemacladus rubescens

Desert threadplant

Family: Campanulaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert threadplant is a California native annual found in the eastern desert slopes, Mojave Desert, and Sonoran Desert regions in dry, sandy or gravelly soils at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces cream-colored flowers with distinctive brown-tipped lobes and a subtle brown chevron pattern. Growing with ascending stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, featuring a silver-gray base and many branches, it forms delicate, slender structures. Its leaves are 5 to 20 millimeters long, widely ovate or elliptic, blunt and entire, with a winged petiole and yellow to yellow-green coloration. The fruit is a small 2 to 2.5 millimeter spheric or flattened structure with a rounded tip.

Habitat: Dry, sandy or gravelly soils

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: PR (e slope), SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Imperial, Inyo, Riverside, Kern, San Diego, Los Angeles, Plumas, Tulare

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