Pectocarya setosa

Hickman 1993, Kearney and Peebles 1969, McDougal 1973

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Small, herbaceous annual, erect and usually ascending, 2-25 cm, covered with white, strigose to bristly appressed hairs. Leaves: Mostly linear, again covered with white, bristly, appressed hairs, opposite below and fused near the base, with upper leaves often alternate. Flowers: Small, white flowers which appear to have 5-6 minute petals at the tip of 1-3 mm corolla, flowers and sepals having evident long, white, strigose or bristly hairs, style persistent and attached to the receptacle. Fruits: Nutlets, (3 wide and 1 narrow), obovate to rounded, with thin, membranous wings surrounding the fruits and marginal, hooked prickles, off-white. Ecology: Found on disturbed soils in sagebrush scrub, creosote flats, pi-on-juniper woodlands, and grasslands, from 500-7,500 ft (152-2286 m); flowers April-May. Notes: This species is similar in appearance to Cryptantha, however, look for the slightly larger flowers and rounded, winged discs of the fruit to differentiate. Ethnobotany: Unknown Synonyms: Gruvelia setosa Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011 Etymology: Pectocarya comes from the Greek pectos, "combed," and karua, "nut," because of comb-like margins on some of the nutlets, while setosa means bristly hairy.