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.

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