Machaerocarpus californicus (Torrey) Small

Herbs, to 35 cm. Leaves erect; petiole 3--15 cm; blade absent or narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 3--9 ´ 0.5--3 cm, margins entire. Inflorescences racemes, rarely panicles; scapes erect or ascending; bracts broadly ovate-lanceolate, thin, scarious. Flowers 12--22 mm wide; sepals persistent, green, oblong or ovate, somewhat hooded, 4--5 mm; petals white with yellow patch near base, rarely pink, broadly cuneate, rhombic, 6--10 mm, erose distally; stamens 2--3 mm, 2 in front of each petal; pistils 6--10 in single ring on receptacle; ovules 1; styles erect in anthesis, soon spreading radially, elongate, stout. Fruits horned by enlargement of style, ribbed on angles, with prominent angular shoulder and depressed flat faces, 0.5 ´ 3--5.5 mm; beak 3--6 mm.

Flowering late summer. Vernal pools, margins of intermittent streams, or on mud; 100--1700 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg.