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]

Langloisia setosissima subsp. punctata

Bristly calico - Langloisia setosissima subsp. punctata

Polemoniaceae

Found in the Death Valley region and the adjoining Panamint Valley, bristly calico is another of the tiny desert annuals that can be easily missed by the casual observer. This species is the sole member of its genus, which contains two sub-species. In the other sub-species, L. setosissima subsp. setosissima has fainter speckling on its petals, but is otherwise indistinct. These plants can be anywhere from 4-20 cm tall, with the flowers being 1.5-2cm in diameter. They are typically found on rocky slopes and washes of the eastern California deserts and up into Oregon and Idaho, and east into Nevada and Arizona.

Like most desert annuals and smaller plants, this species has very little in the way of documentation for this plant.

Forestiera pubescens

Desert olive or stretchberry - Forestiera pubescens

Oleaceae

A member of the olive family, F. pubescens is a low growing to tall shrub from the swampprivet genus. These trees are found, as their name genus name would indicate, near water. In the Mojave area, that means they're found near streams and creeks in the eastern Sierra Nevadas. These shrubs are winter deciduous, and can be found either singly or in large stands.

Like most members of this genus, F. pubesces is dioecious, meaning that there are separate male and female plants. Flowering occurred in March to April. When mature, the fruits resemble small, black olives, which were found in tight clumps at the branch nodes.

Lasthenia californica

California Goldfields - Lasthenia californica - Asteraceae

Carpeting the hills in a spectacular golden-yellow, California goldfields are aptly named. Found in the region nearest the Sierras, these tiny annual sunflowers are one of the most prolific of the desert annuals. When I first encountered them, as I walked through a sea of flowers, I found my boots and pants turned yellow from the vast amounts of pollen they produced. This is a key to the plant's survival strategy: be as fecund as possible. Each individual plant puts almost nothing into its stem and root system. Instead, it focuses on its flowerhead, which, when pollinated, will produce many dozens of seeds. It is this devotion to prolific reproduction that makes the goldfields differ from the perennials of the region, which focus on building a tough, sturdy body for themselves.

Caulanthus inflatus

Desert Candle - Caulanthus inflatus - Brassicaceae

Striking and beautiful, the desert candle is a native herbaceous plant that can usually be found on sandy hillocks and in washes, where they grow in large, spectacular stands. Deriving its common name from the apical nature of its flowers, this member of the mustard family can grow to be nearly three feet tall, and bears numerous purple flowers at the apex of its inflated main stem. Found predominantly in the Mojave, and to a lesser extent the surrounding regions, they typically bloom from March till May. Though typically unbranched, they can form lateral stalks on occasion, forming a living candelabra.

Desert candles are bee pollinated annuals, specifically the smaller native bees found in the desert. When in bloom, they can be heavily visited by these insects. Their fruit, however, is a dry, dehiscent silique that releases its seeds near the parent plant without animal dispersion. The parent plant dies in the late summer-early fall, and is replaced next year by its offspring.

Castilleja applegatei

Wavyleaf indian paintbrush - Castilleja applegatei - Scrophulariaceae

Found in the higher elevations and rock canyons of the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, C. applegatei is a showy plant with a striking red flower.

These plants are usually found in dry open forests and scrub, particularly rocky areas.

One of the lesser known traits of this plant, and all members of its genus, is that it is a facultative, root, hemiparasite. As a facultative parasite, they are capable of surviving without a host, but grow best with a host, which are typically grasses and forbs.

Linanthus parryae

Sand Blossom - Linanthus parryae - Polemoniaceae

One of the smallest flowering plants found in the Mojave, Linanthus parryae, also known as sand blossom, is both a prolific and showy little annual. Flowering from March to May, these petite phlox can carpet the hills and washes of the desert with a blanket of purple and white. Endemic to the California floristic provence, the best places to find these little jewels are creosote bush scrub and joshua tree woodlands.

Vegetatively, these plants are rather unremarkable. There is little in the way of an above-ground stem, with only small, spiny leaves ringing what does emerge. However, what they lack in vegetation, they more than make up in blossom. Delicate and showy, the flowers from this plant are a spectacular show in the early to late spring. One of the most striking aspects of these flowers is their polymorphism: populations tend to be either white or blue-purple, and in some cases, a mixture of both.

Because of this polymorphism, these plants have been the subject of genetic studies by several important botanists, including Sewall Wright, who based much of his work on genetic drift on the study this Linanthus.