Prickly spineflower

Plants spreading to decumbent, 0.3-0.8(-1) × 0.5-4(-5) dm, appressed-pubescent. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-2 cm; blade oblanceolate to spatulate, 0.5-1.5(-2) × 0.2-0.6 cm, thinly pubescent. Inflorescences with involucres in small, open clusters 0.5-1.5 cm diam., greenish to grayish; bracts 2, without whorl of sessile bracts about midstem, usually leaflike, oblanceolate to elliptic, 0.5-1.5 cm × 1.5-5 mm, gradually reduced and becoming scalelike at distal nodes, linear, aciculate, acerose, 0.3-0.8 cm × 1-2 mm, awns straight, 0.5-1.5 mm. Involucres 3-10+, grayish to reddish, urceolate, slightly ventricose basally, 2-2.5(-3) mm, slightly corrugate, without scarious or membranous margins, densely pubescent; teeth spreading, unequal, 1-2 mm; awns straight or uncinate, unequal, with longer anterior one straight, mostly 1.5-2.5 mm, others uncinate, 0.3-0.6 mm. Flowers exserted; perianth bicolored with floral tube yellow and tepals yellow or white, cylindric, 3.5-4 mm, sparsely pubescent; tepals connate 2 their length, dimorphic, obovate, those of outer whorl white, obovate to nearly orbiculate, 3-4 times longer than those of inner whorl, , truncate to slightly 2-lobed apically, those of inner lobes erect, yellow, broadly obovate, truncate and erose apically; stamens 9, included; filaments distinct, 1-1.5 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow to golden, oblong, 0.5-0.6 mm. Achenes brown, globose-lenticular, 3-3.5 mm. 2n = (36), 40, (44).

Flowering May-Jul. Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland communities, pine-oak woodlands; of conservation concern; 200-600 m; Calif.

Chorizanthe rectispina is infrequent and localized in the Coast Ranges of west-central California.