General: Pebble Pincushion (Chaenactis carphoclinia) is an annual forb with highly dissected basal leaves and several flowering stalks. There may be several white flowers on each stalk. Flowers are "sunflower-type without petals" (rayless).

Pebble Pincushion is a common component of desert vegetation communities in washes and other gravelly and rocky soils. Around Las Vegas, look for this species in washes at Lake Mead and Death Valley.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Other Names:

Plant Form: Herbaceous base with flower stalks.

Height: To about 2 feet.

Stems: Usually one flowering stalk.

Leaves: Long, narrow, pinnately dissected.

Flowers: Flowers in heads at the tip of flower stalks; white, disk flowers only (no ray flowers); blooms during spring.

Habitat: Washes and gravel or rocky soils.

Elevation: To about 6,000 feet.

Distribution: California to Utah and New Mexico.

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