''Chorizanthe watsonii'' (kor-i-ZAN-the WAT-son-ee-eye) is a species of flowering plant in the

buckwheat family The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...

known by the common name Fivetooth Spineflower or Watson's Spineflower. They are an annual herb native to the western United States including Idaho, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Arizona, namely the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

which runs through many of them.

Habitat and description

It grows in many types of desert plant communities, in areas of sandy to gravelly flats and slopes and mixed grassland including Pinyon-Juniper woodland, Joshua Tree woodland, and

sagebrush scrub Sagebrush scrub is a vegetation type (biome) of mid to high elevation Western United States deserts characterized by low growing, drought resistant shrubs including sagebrush (''Artemisia tridentata'') and its associates.Karen Wiese, Sierra Nevada ...

. The warmer northern

and the cold Great Basin Desert finds them widely distributed at elevations of 300–2400m. This small plant grows a woolly erect stem up to about 2-15 centimeters tall with leaves 3-20mm in length. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a cluster of flowers surrounded by five hairy greenish to reddish

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s tipped with hooked awns 1–2 mm in length. The flower is 0.5–1 cm in diameter and yellow in color and grow from April/May to July/August in the USA's summer months. Specimens observed in the northern areas of the range, (such as the south-east Washington's

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primaril ...

Prairies) usually have three stamens.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
watsonii North American desert flora Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Western United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Plants described in 1870 Taxa named by Asa Gray Taxa named by John Torrey Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Polygonaceae-stub