Pilostyles thurberi

Thurber's pilostyles

Family: Apodanthaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Thurber's pilostyles is a native perennial found in the southern Desert of Sonora region in Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial counties in open desert scrub at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering in January, this tiny plant produces minuscule flowers less than 2 millimeters long with yellow to cream-colored sepals and a dark green reproductive column. Growing as a parasitic plant with extremely reduced structure, it develops overlapping brown to maroon leaf-like scales 1 to 1.5 millimeters long that are round or ovate in shape. Its leaves are tightly arranged in 4 to 7 compact layers, creating a dense, almost scale-like appearance. The plant's reproductive structures feature a yellow disk less than 1 millimeter in diameter with anthers arranged in approximately three concentric rings.

Habitat: Open desert scrub

Bloom period: Jan

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: s DSon (Riverside, San Diego, Imperial cos.)

California counties: Imperial, San Diego, Riverside

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