''Eremogone macradenia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

known by the common names Mojave sandwort and desert sandwort.

Distribution

It is native to the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, where it grows on desert slopes and in dry woodland and sagebrush, such as in 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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Description

This is a perennial herb producing a tuft of erect stems 20 to 40 centimeters tall. The leaves are needlelike, a few centimeters long and sharp or blunt at the tip. 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 an open cyme of white flowers each with five petals. The fruit is a toothed capsule containing several small reddish to black seeds.

Varieties

There are four varieties of this species. Three are not rare but one variety, var. ''kuschei'', is limited to about 130 individuals in the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Tr ...

of eastern

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

.Center for Plant Conservation: ''A. m.'' var. ''kuschei''

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Arenaria macradenia''
— TJM2: ''Eremogone macradenia''.
USDA Plants Profile: Arenaria macradenia
Caryophyllaceae Flora of Arizona Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of Utah North American desert flora Flora of the California desert regions Natural history of the Mojave Desert Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) ~ ~ Natural history of the Central Valley (California) Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Caryophyllaceae-stub