General: Yellow Beeplant (Cleomella lutea) is an upright annual forb with 3-part leaves. The compact bundles of flowers are yellow and borne in the leaf axils.

Yellow Beeplant is a rare component of desert vegetation communities on sandy and gravely alkaline soils. Around Las Vegas, look for this species in the bottom of Death Valley, one of the only places it grows.

Family: Caper (Capparaceae).

Other Names: Formerly Oxystylis lutea, spiny caper.

Plant Form: Upright annual.

Height: Usually to about 20 inches, to about 4 feet.

Stems: One, upright.

Leaves: Compound, palmate, leaflets 3; blades to about 3 inches, elliptical, entire.

Flowers: Heads occur in leaf axils, forming tight ball of flowers to about 1-inch diameter, sessile.

Seeds:

Habitat: Sandy and gravely alkaline desert flats.

Elevation: To about 1,000 ft.

Distribution: California and western Nevada (Death Valley and Amargosa Desert areas).

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