Quincula lobata

Lobed ground-cherry

Family: Solanaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Lobed ground-cherry is a rare (CNPS 2B.3) California native perennial found in southeastern Mojave Desert and northeastern Colorado Desert regions in desert scrub, woodland, and dry lake bed habitats at elevations of 500 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to May and September to November, this plant produces purple or blue flowers approximately 15 to 20 millimeters wide with distinctive white or purple hairy appendages at the base of each corolla lobe. Growing with tufted or spreading stems up to 50 centimeters tall, it has few-branched stems covered in bead-like hairs that dry to scales. Its wing-petioled leaves range from 1 to 7 centimeters long, lanceolate to ovate, with edges that are entire, wavy-dentate, or irregularly lobed. The fruit is a dry berry about 5 to 6 millimeters in diameter, greenish yellow, and completely enclosed by a papery, urn-shaped calyx.

Habitat: Desert scrub, woodland, dry lake beds, silty flats, gravelly soils

Bloom period: Mar-May, Sep--Nov

Elevation: 500-1300 m

Bioregions: se DMoj, ne DSon

California counties: San Bernardino

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