Color: Yellow or orange

Common name: Checker fiddleneck, devil's lettuce.
Latin name: Amsinckia tessellata
Family: BORAGINACEAE

Height: 8-24 inches tall.

Description: Flower 8–16 mm, 2–10 mm wide at top. Flowers grow on a spike-like inflorescence with a coiled tip.

Leaf: Generally linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblong. Range: Inner North

Coast Ranges (Colusa Co.), Great Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast Ranges, Western Transverse Ranges, Great Basin Floristic Province, Desert. Can extend to e WA and to Baja California, Mexico.
Habitat: Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodland, Sagebrush Scrub, Foothill Woodland, Valley Grassland, rocky or sandy soils.

Elevation: 50–2200 m
Flowering time: Mar-May

Notes: Common annual. Often found in disturbed places. Sharp plant hairs irritate human skin. Seeds and herbage TOXIC to livestock, especially cattle.

Photos tips Most digital point-and-shoot cameras have a macro function - usually symbolized by the icon of a little flower. When you turn on that function, you allow your camera to get closer to the subject, looking into a flower for example. Or getting up close and personal with a bug. More on desert photography.

Mojave Desert wildflowers This book is the standard by which all other wildflower books are measured. The author, Jon Mark Stewart, has combined super photography with concise information. This book has an entire color page to each wildflower covered, with a discussion of the wildflower. 210 pages with 200 color photos. More...

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