Pectocarya setosa

Round-nut pectocarya, Round-Nut Pectocarya

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Round-nut pectocarya is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, central and southern California coastal regions, southeastern Mojave Plateau, southern Nevada, and desert regions in gravelly clearings of sagebrush scrub, creosote-bush scrub, pinyon and juniper woodland, and grassland at elevations of 150 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from March to June, this delicate plant produces small white flowers with distinctive bristly calyx lobes. Growing with ascending to erect branched stems 2 to 23 centimeters tall, the plant has proximal leaves that are opposite and fused at the base while distal leaves become alternate. Its leaves feature nutlets that are approximately round to obovate, with membranous-winged margins and scattered hook-tipped bristles. The fruit develops with nutlets 1.5 to 4 millimeters long, with three wide-winged and one narrow-winged nutlet.

Habitat: Gravelly clearings in sagebrush scrub, creosote-bush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland, grassland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 150-2300 m

Bioregions: s SN, CW, SW, se MP (exc Wrn), SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Kern, Riverside, Ventura, Inyo, Tulare, Fresno, Mono, Santa Barbara, Imperial, Colusa, San Luis Obispo, Glenn, Lassen, San Joaquin, Kings, San Benito, Merced, Nevada, Monterey

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