Pale-Yellow Sun Cup
Camissonia pallida
Color: Yellow
Common name: Pale-yellow sun cup
Latin name: Camissonia pallida
Family: ONAGRACEAE
Description: Petals 2–13 mm, yellow fading reddish, bases with 1–3 red dots. Annual, rosetted, grayish, with dense stiff, straight sharp hairs. Stem lies mostly on the ground but with tips curving up.
Leaf: 10–30 mm; not basal, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate — in the shape of a flattened circle or ellipse, edges with sharp, relatively coarse teeth pointed outwards.
Range: s San Joaquin Valley (Kern Co.), n slope San Bernardino Mountains, Desert.
Habitat: Desert slopes, flats, washes, creosote-bush scrub to pinyon/juniper woodland.
Elevation: 30–1800 m.
Flowering time: Mar-May
Notes: Photographed April, 10, 2004, Mojave Desert, Pearblossom Highway near Llano, Calif. A dicot, is an annual herb that is native to California and is also found outside of California, but is confined to western North America. Distribution outside California: Nevada, Arizona.
We have an online wildflower field guide that is designed to help you identify desert wildflowers by color, scientific name, region and common name. The pictures are sized to work on the iPod, iPhone, iPad and similar devices. With your iPod or phone you will easily be able to identify wildflowers while in the desert. Links for downloads are on the bottom of the Wildflower Field Guide page.
Photo 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 for each wildflower covered, with a discussion of the wildflower. 210 pages with 200 color photos. More...
What's Blooming Now - Check the Wildflower Reports
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