Official Status:

Life History:

Perennial herbs from stout taproots; stems prostrate or decumbent; leaves mostly basal, linear, spreading, 5-12 cm long, pinnately divided into 7-18 pairs of leaflets, glaucous, glabrous or with a few fringing hairs when young; flowers in branched arrangements at ends of stems, petals 5, bright yellow, oval, longer than the green sepals, stamens 15-20, styles 3-10, smooth, 2.2-2.7 mm long; seeds (fruits) 1.9-2.2 mm long, brownish, surfaces with an obscure network of low ridges.

Distribution and Habitat:

This species' range has two disjunct parts, In Nevada restricted to a 5 km-square area of Soldier Meadows in the northern Black-Rock Desert of southwestern Humboldt County. In California, known only from along Ash Creek in Ash Valley of north-central Lassen County. The full range extent at the California sites is estimated in 2005 as about 0.25 sq mi. (about 160 acres).

Moist salt-crusted clay in alkaline meadows above, and outflow stream margins below, desert springs (often thermal), generally on flat to slight southeast aspects at elevations of 1330-1560 m, with Juncus balticus, Scirpus maritimus, S. acutus, Triglochin maritima, Distichlis spicata, Sisyrinchium halophilum, Nitrophila occidentalis, Carex spp., Pyrrocoma racemosa, Solidago spectabilis, Sphaeromeria potentilloides, Astragalus argophyllus, Lotus purshianus, Ericameria nauseosa, Sarcobatus vermiculatus, etc.

Threats:

increasing recreational use in the areas where the species occurs, livestock grazing, and activities associated with the use of authorized and unauthorized roads

Actions / Current Information: