''Cordylanthus parviflorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', ''Striga'') were formerly included in the ...

known by the common name purple bird's beak. It is native to the western United States where it grows in several types of habitat, including the sagebrush steppe of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

. It is an annual

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

, red-tinted gray-green in color, and hairy, glandular, and sticky in texture. It grows 20 to 60 centimeters tall. 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 ...

bears flowers accompanied by hairy, lobed red-green

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. The flower is up to 2 centimeters long, made up of a dark-veined pink pouch enveloped in darker

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
parviflorus Flora of Nevada Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Orobanchaceae-stub