''Polycarpon depressum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

known by the common name California manyseed. It is native to southern

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 ...

and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, where it grows in sandy habitat such as coastal bluffs and disturbed habitat types such as fields and roadsides. It is a small annual herb producing a spreading, branching stem just a few centimeters long that lies prostrate on the ground. A few pairs of oppositely arranged leaves line the stems, each oval in shape narrowing to a petiole and measuring about a centimeter long. 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 rounded flowers with minute petals tucked inside a calyx of pointed

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 ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
Caryophyllaceae Flora of Baja California Flora of California Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Caryophyllaceae-stub