General: Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant (Pholisma arenarium) is a mounded, perennial forb that grows from a fleshy, underground stem. The above-ground parts usually grow to about 6-inches tall, but it can get to about 20 inches. Flowers purple with a white margin.
Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant is an uncommon component of sandy-soil vegetation communities in in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage
Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones of southern California. Around Las Vegas, look for Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant in the western Mojave Desert near the California towns of Victorville and Kramer Junction.
Family: Lennoa (Lennoaceae).
Other Names: Desert Christmas Tree, Pholisma depressum, Pholisma paniculatum. |