General: Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant (Pholisma arenarium) is a mounded, perennial forb that grows from a fleshy, underground stem. The above-ground parts usually grow to about 6-inches tall, but it can get to about 20 inches. Flowers purple with a white margin.

Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant is an uncommon component of sandy-soil vegetation communities in in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones of southern California. Around Las Vegas, look for Scaly-stemmed Sand Plant in the western Mojave Desert near the California towns of Victorville and Kramer Junction.

Family: Lennoa (Lennoaceae).

Other Names: Desert Christmas Tree, Pholisma depressum, Pholisma paniculatum.

Plant Form: Mound.

Height: To about 6 inches.

Stems: Unbranched, mounded, rigid; about 1-inch in diameter (without flowers).

Leaves: To about 1 inch, linear or triangular; glandular.

Flowers: Blooms in spring to early summer. Inflorescence: spike. Flowers trumpet shaped, purple, with a white margin.

Fruit: Capsule.

Habitat: Sandy soils in coastal dunes and deserts.

Elevation: To about 6,000 feet.

Distribution: Southern California deserts, western-most Arizona, northwest New Mexico.

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