Tiquilia palmeri

Palmer's tiquilia, Palmer's Tiquilia

Family: Ehretiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Palmer's tiquilia is a California native perennial found in the western edge of the desert region near the Colorado River in sandy gravel soils at elevations below 650 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces blue, purple, or lavender flowers with a limb 4 to 5 millimeters in diameter clustered in leaf axils. Growing with opposite branches and somewhat woody stems covered in shaggy hairs, it forms a low-spreading plant. Its leaves are clustered and gray-strigose, with small ovate to round blades 3.5 to 11 millimeters long, featuring margins that are slightly crenate and two to three pairs of shallow lateral veins. The fruit develops as deeply 4-lobed nutlets that are spheric, smooth, and shiny.

Habitat: Sandy gravel soils, on terraced flats

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 650 m

Bioregions: D (esp w edge DSon and near Colorado River)

California counties: Riverside, Imperial, San Bernardino, San Diego, Tulare, Los Angeles

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