Plantago ovata

Desert indianwheat

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert indianwheat is a California native annual herb found in desert regions at elevations between 100 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces delicate white to cream-colored flowers in dense, short-cylindric woolly spikes 0.5 to 3.5 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, the plant develops silky, dense hairs across its structure. Its leaves are linear to oblong, 2 to 17 centimeters long, with entire margins or occasionally few minute teeth. The seeds are small, paired, and approximately 2 to 2.5 millimeters in length.

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Ventura, Monterey, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tuolumne, Fresno, Merced, Alameda, Kings, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Orange, Lake, El Dorado

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