Kingdom Plantae Family Nyctaginaceae Scientific name Tripterocalyx crux-maltae | Order Caryophyllales Genus Tripterocalyx Rank Species | |
Similar Abronia turbinata, Abronia alpina, Abronia ameliae, Tripterocalyx micranthus, Abronia ammophila | ||
Tripterocalyx crux-maltae is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common names Lassen sandverbena and Kellogg's sand-verbena.
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Distribution
It is native to a section of the Great Basin straddling the far northern California-Nevada border, where it grows in sagebrush habitat. It is nearly endemic to Nevada, with only one occurrence present in Lassen County, California.
Description
Tripterocalyx crux-maltae grows in a patch on the ground, the multibranched stems spreading not more than 30 centimeters long. The stems are reddish in color and coated in sticky glandular hairs.
Each leaf has a fleshy green blade up to 7 centimeters long which is borne on a long petiole. The herbage is sticky in texture.
The inflorescence is a head of several elongated flowers borne on long, glandular pedicels all attached at the small central receptacle. Each trumpet-shaped purple or magenta flower may be up to 2.5 centimeters in length and over a centimeter wide at the face of the corolla, with 4 or 5 lobes.
The fruit has wide, thin, net-veined or ribbed wings and hairy surfaces.