''Navarretia setiloba'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common names Paiute Mountain pincushionplant and Piute Mountains navarretia.

Distribution

The plant 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 from fewer than ten occurrences at the southern tip of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

, Tehachapi Mountains, San Emigdio Mountains, and adjacent southern

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

, primarily within

Kern County, California Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County comprise ...

. It is named for Piute Mountain in the Southern Sierra near Lake Isabella, not the

Piute Mountains The Piute Mountains are a mountain range located in the Eastern Mojave Desert and within Mojave Trails National Monument, in San Bernardino County, California. Geography The range crosses Interstate 40 at Mountain Springs Summit, 2,770 feet abo ...

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 ...

, which are far outside its range. It is a California Native Plant Society listed critically endangered species. California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants (online edition, v8-02): ''Navarretia setiloba''
. accessed 3.16.2016. It grows in moist depressions in grassland,

oak woodland An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...

, and pinyon-juniper woodland habitats, from in elevation.

Description

''Navarretia setiloba'' is a hairy, glandular annual herb growing tall. The leaves are divided into many forked linear lobes. 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 a cluster of flowers surrounded by leaflike bracts. The flowers are about a centimeter long and are purple-blue with white throats. The bloom period is April to July.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Navarretia setiloba'' (Paiute Mountain pincushionplant, Piute Mountains navarretia)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Navarretia setiloba''UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Navarretia setiloba''
setiloba Endemic flora of California Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of Kern County, California Natural history of the Transverse Ranges ~ Critically endangered flora of California {{Polemoniaceae-stub