Mentzelia pumila

Wiggins 1964, Kearney and Peebles 1969, Christy 1998

Duration: Biennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Biennial with stout stems, tortuous, grayish to yellowish white, striate; finely scaberulous with antrorsely barbed hairs, epidermis splitting and peeling away on older parts; grows to 60 cm tall. Leaves: Linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3-10 cm long, irregularly sinuate-dentate to pinnatifid, both surfaces scabrous with glochidiate hairs, lower leaves short-petiolate, upper sessile and partially clasping. Flowers: In terminal, few flowered cymes, subtended by 1-2 linear bracts at base of 5-15 mm calyx tube, calyx clavate to cylindrical, scabrous; calyx lobes oblong, attenuate 8-10 mm long; petals 10, yellow, lanceolate to broadened and longer than inner, linear, in 3-4 series. Fruits: Capsule subcylindrical, oblong or clavate, attenuate below 15-20 mm long, scabrous and striate. Ecology: Found on sandy soils, on slopes, plains and washes from 100-8,000 ft (61-2438 m); flowers February-October. Notes: Stick a leaf to your clothes to double check the stickleaf family. Ethnobotany: Used as a laxative, as a toothache medicine, and as a substitute for tobacco. Etymology: Mentzelia named for Christian Mentzel (1622-1701), a 17th century German botanist, botanical author and physician, pumila means dwarf. Synonyms: Bartonia pumila, Hesperaster pumilus, Nuttallia pumila, Touterea pumila Editor: SBuckley, 2010