Stylocline psilocarphoides

Peck neststraw, Peck Neststraw

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Peck neststraw is a California native annual found on the northern edge of the Tehachapi Range, eastern Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, and western edge of the Sonoran Desert in open, sandy or gravelly areas at elevations of 100 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces small, delicate heads with pale flowers nestled among tomentose (woolly) bracts. Growing with diminutive stems just 1 to 8 centimeters tall, often appearing nearly leafless between branch points, it forms compact, low-growing clusters. Its leaves are small and distinctive, with the largest distal leaves measuring 3 to 10 millimeters long and 1 to 2 millimeters wide, shaped like tiny elliptic or spoon-like blades. The plant's most intriguing feature is its paleae, with wing-like structures that are widest in the distal third and shaped like oblanceolate or teardrop-like expansions.

Habitat: Open, generally stable, sandy or gravelly, rock bases, drip lines

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: 100-2000 m

Bioregions: n edge TR, SNE, DMoj, w edge DSon

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