Simpsonanthus jonesii

Simpson's popcornflower, mojave popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Simpson's popcornflower is a native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Sierra Nevada east of the Sierra, and desert regions on sandy, gravelly, rocky washes and slopes in creosote-bush scrub and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 90 to 1,900 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white flowers with light yellow appendages in small funnel-shaped blossoms. Growing with ascending to erect stems up to 50 centimeters tall, the plant is distinctively sharp-spreading-bristly and taprooted. Its alternate leaves are oblong to elliptic, generally 2 to 10 centimeters long and rough with bulbous-based bristly hairs that give the plant a prickly texture. The fruit consists of 3 to 4 triangular-ovate nutlets, each 2 to 3 millimeters long with a keeled surface.

Habitat: Sandy, gravelly, rocky washes and slopes, creosote-bush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: (Jan)Mar-May(Jun)

Elevation: 90-1900 m

Bioregions: s SNH, SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, San Diego, Kern, Mono, Imperial, Los Angeles, Shasta

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