Thingia ambigua

Desert cistanthe, dead man's fingers

Family: Montiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert cistanthe is a California native annual found in the Desert bioregion in desert scrub with sandy to silty, often alkaline soils at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from January to May, this plant produces delicate white flowers 2 to 5 millimeters long with yellow stamens. Growing with spreading to erect fleshy stems, it forms a distinctive basal rosette with alternate cauline leaves. Its linear to narrowly oblanceolate leaves are 1.5 to 6 centimeters long, bright to dark green, and strongly fleshy. The fruit is an ovoid 3-valved capsule containing 6 to 15 shiny black seeds.

Habitat: Desert scrub, sandy to silty soil, often alkaline

Bloom period: Jan-May

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Imperial, Riverside, San Diego, Amador

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