General: Whitebract Blazingstar (Mentzelia involucrata) is an annual forb that looks like a small, rounded shrub (a mound of crinkled leaves) topped with large, cup-shaped, pale-yellow flowers. The medium-sized leaves are hairy, and the flowers have five petals and many stamens. Long, white flower bracts remain on the fruit after the petals fall.

Whitebract Blazingstar is an uncommon component of desert vegetation communities during the spring. It can be found on dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly desert flats, bajadas, and moderate slopes in the lower mountains in the Lower Sonora (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Loasa (Loasaceae).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Rounded, herbaceous annual.

Height: To about 14-inches tall.

Stems: Thick, but not woody.

Leaves: Alternate, linear to oval, to about 3/4 inch long, irregularly toothed. Hairs present.

Flowers: Blooms early to late spring. Inflorescence: single flowers. Flower: 5 petals; petals 1/2 to 2-1/2 inches, pale yellow; stamens to 1-inch long.

Fruit: cylindrical capsule. Long, white flower bracts remain on the fruit after the petals fall.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: To about 3,000 feet.

Distribution: Nevada to California, and south into Mexico.

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