Rafinesquia neomexicana

Chicory - Rafinesquia neomexicana

Asteraceae

One among the nearly 170 species of Asteraceae found in the Mojave desert, chicory is part of the dandelion group, having a resinous sap, no disk flowers, and plumose pappus. This annual plant is often found tangled in the branches of other, perennial plants, which it uses as a support structure in a inquilisticly commensal relationship. This relationship is not obligatory, and chicory can grow independent of a host plant.

The flowers appear in February, and typically persist until May. I often observed small beetles on the flowers, which could be the pollinator, or an opportunist feeding on the flower parts. The seeds are, like most Asteraceae, probably wind dispersed.

Calochortus flexuosus

Strangling or winding mariposa lily - Calochortus flexuosus

Liliaceae

Calochortus flexuosus is a member of the mariposa lily genus, and as such, is among the most spectacular of our native lilies. Found in the Death Valley region east through Colorado. Their typical habitat are rocky slopes, desert hills and mesas between 600 and 1700 m in elevation.

This plant is often inquilisticly commensal with another plant, using its host plant as a support structure. Like another desert plant, the chicory (Rafinesquia neomexicana), it is unlikely that this growth significantly impacts the host plant. C. flexuosus is also capable of forming a scrambling vine that will grow along the ground, and as such, the plant is not obligately symbiotic with a host.

The blossoms of these lilies are typically a light lavender color, with a slightly rarer morph having light, almost white petals. The one or two leaves this plant produces are ephemeral, drying by the point the plant is in flower, with small bracts arming the stems in place of true leaves. The flowers emerge from April to May. [Jepson]