Bear Valley sandwort

Arenaria ursina B. L. Robinson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 29: 294. 1894

Plants tufted, green, not glaucous, with somewhat woody base. Stems ascending to erect, 10-18 cm, often glandular-hairy. Leaves: basal leaves persistent; cauline leaves in 3-5 pairs, reduced distally; basal blades erect to ± spreading, needlelike, 0.5-1.1(-1.6) cm × 0.5-0.7 mm, rigid, herbaceous, not fleshy, apex blunt to apiculate, glabrous, ± glaucous. Inflorescences (1-)3-7-flowered, ± open cymes. Pedicels 0.3-2 mm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals 1-3-veined, lateral veins less developed, ovate, often broadly so, 1.8-3 mm, to 4.2 mm in fruit, margins broad, apex obtuse or rounded, glabrous; petals white, elliptic to oblanceolate, 2-4.5 mm, 1.4-1.6 times as long as sepals, apex rounded; nectaries as lateral and abaxial rounding of base of filaments opposite sepals, with terminal lateral groove, 0.3 mm. Capsules 4.5-6 mm, glabrous. Seeds blackish purple, suborbicular to broadly ellipsoid with hilar notch, 2.2-2.5(-3) mm, tuberculate; tubercles rounded, elongate.

Flowering late spring-summer. Pinyon-juniper woodlands on rocky (quartzite) soils; of conservation concern; 1900-2100 m; Calif.

Eremogone ursina is known from four counties in southern California, where it is threatened by development. It is relatively distinctive in appearance and markedly separated spatially from congeners.