Plant Name
Scientific Name: Monoptilon bellioides
Common Name: Mojave Desertstar
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert. This small wildflower grows in dry, sunny, open, bare areas.
Flower Color: White, Pale violet-pink
Flowering Season: Winter (late), Spring
Height: To only 2 inches (5 cm) tall
Description: The flower heads are 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) across and have 9 to 20 elongated, white to pale pink rays and yellow disks. The showy flowers are often larger than the rest of the plant. The leaves are green, linear, and hairy. This low-growing plant is common in years with good winter rains and can carpet large patches of the ground.
The similar White Easterbonnets (Antheropeas lanosum) is very woolly and has fewer, broader, notched or blunt-tipped rays, while the also similar Daisy Desertstar (Monoptilon bellidiforme) is only found in the northwestern part of Arizona.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae – Aster family
Genus: Monoptilon Torr. & A. Gray – desertstar
Species: Monoptilon bellioides (A. Gray) H.M. Hall – Mojave desertstar
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