General: Ghost Flower (Mohavea confertiflora), or Mohavea, is an annual forb with long, narrow leaves and large, cone-shaped flowers that are pale yellow with many, tiny red spots. The leaves and the petals are hairy.

Ghost Flower is an uncommon component of desert vegetation communities during the spring. It can be found in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils on flats, in and along washes, and on bajadas in the Lower Sonora (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Figwort (Scrophulariaceae).

Other Names: Mohavea.

Plant Form: Upright forb with few if any branches.

Height: To about 16-inches tall.

Stems: Not woody.

Leaves: Alternate, lanceolate but wide, edges smooth, hairy.

Flowers: Blooms mid-spring. Inflorescence: Flowers solitary in axils, but crowed together. Flowers: Bilateral symmetry, 5 lobes; flower tube to about 1-1/2 inches, pale yellow with small red spots or lines on the inside; petals hairy.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: Sea level to 3,600 feet.

Distribution: Southern California to western Arizona, and south into northwestern Mexico.

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