Mentzelia involucrata (Whitebract Blazing Star, Sand Blazing Star)

 4/4/04 Wash off Cottonwood Road between I-10 and Joshua Tree National Park

Visitor Center, Riverside County, CA

4/4/04 Cottonwood Road

 4/3/11 Meccacopia Trail, Box Canyon Road, Mecca Hills, Riverside County, CA

 3/8/03 Box Canyon Road south of Sheep Hole Oasis Trail, Mecca Hills, 

Riverside County, CA

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Whitebract Blazing Star, Sand Blazing Star

SPECIES: Mentzelia involucrata

FAMILY: Loasaceae (Stickleaf Family)

LIFE LIST DATE: 3/8/2003

LOCATION: Box Canyon Road south of Sheep Hole Oasis Trail, Mecca Hills, Riverside County, CA

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Annual 7–35 cm

Leaves 2–18 cm, generally irregularly toothed

Inflorescence: bracts 4–5 per flower, (ob)ovate, white-scarious, margin green, 3–10-toothed or -lobed

Flower: sepals 7–23 mm; petals 13–62 mm, cream-yellow with orange veins; stamens 4–26 mm, filament 2-toothed at tip; style 8–30 mm

Fruit 14–22 mm, 5–10 mm wide, straight

Seed 2–3 mm, 2–2.5 mm wide, ± compressed, beaked, narrowed above and below middle, rough, ashy white

Ecology: Washes, fans, steep slopes, creosote-bush scrub

Elevation: < 900 m.  

Bioregional distribution: Desert 

Distribution outside California: n Mexico

Flowering time: Jan–May

Horticultural information: TRY.