General: Desert Frasera (Frasera albomarginata) is a perennial forb that grows as a basal rosette for several years, then puts up a flower stalk, blooms, and dies. The leaves are lanceolate with wavy margins and a white stripe along the edge of the leaves. The flower stalk has a few leaves, but it makes a big star-burst (open panicle) of 4-petaled flowers.
Desert Frasera is an uncommon component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained calcarious soils (soils from limestone) on bajadas into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone.
Around Las Vegas, look for Desert Frasera on limestone soils at Red Rock Canyon NCA and at lower elevations on Mt. Charleston.
Family: Gentian (Gentianaceae). Other names: Swertia albomarginata |