''Chorizanthe spinosa'' is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the

buckwheat family The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...

known by the common name Mojave spineflower. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

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 ...

, where it is known only from the scrub habitat at the western edges of 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 ...

. ''Chorizanthe spinosa'' is prostrate or upright, reaching up to 40 centimeters in length. It is grayish in color and hairy in texture. 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 or dense cluster of flowers, with each flower surrounded by green, gray, or pink

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. There are generally five bracts per flower, with one bract much longer than the others. The bracts are tipped with straight awns. The flower at the center is only about 3 millimeters wide and usually white in color.

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment
spinosa Endemic flora of California Flora of the California desert regions Plants described in 1880 Taxa named by Sereno Watson Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Polygonaceae-stub