Palafoxia arida var. arida

Desert needle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Desert needle is a California native perennial found in the Mojave Desert (Bioregion D) in sandy washes, dunes, and creosote-bush scrub at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from January to September, this plant produces white flowers in dense heads 5 to 40 millimeters wide with cylindric involucres. Growing with rough-hairy stems that become glandular toward the tips, it reaches 20 to 30 centimeters tall. Its leaves are 2 to 10 centimeters long, covered in a rough, grayish-white canescent surface that gives the plant a distinctive silvery appearance. The fruit is elongated, measuring 10 to 15 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Washes, dunes, other sandy places in creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Jan-Sep

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: D

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