Chickweed starry puncturebract

Oxytheca caryophylloides Parry, Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 3: 175. 1882; Eriogonum caryophylloides (Parry) S. Stokes

Plants 1-2.5 × (0.3-)1-4(-5) dm. Stems spreading to prostrate. Leaf blades spatulate to oblanceolate, 1-6(-8) × 0.3-1.2(-1.8) cm. Inflorescences diffuse, 0.5-2 dm; bracts 3-8 × 0.5-1.5 mm, awns 0.2-0.5 mm. Peduncles erect, 0.1-1 cm, sparsely glandular or glabrous, otherwise absent. Involucres concolored, narrowly to broadly turbinate, 4-7 mm, sparsely glandular; teeth 5(-6), connate ca. 2 their length; awns greenish to reddish, 0.3-1 mm. Flowers 2-3; perianth greenish yellow to reddish, 1-2 mm; tepals broadly oblanceolate, 3-lobed apically 1/ 5 their length, lobes not laciniate; filaments 0.8-1.2 mm; anthers red, oval, 0.2-0.4 mm. Achenes golden to red-brown, 1.2-1.5 mm. 2n = 40.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Sandy to gravelly flats, washes, and slopes, chaparral communities, montane conifer woodlands; 1300-2600 m; Calif.

Sidotheca caryophylloides grows in the Transverse Ranges and the southern Sierra Nevada.