Foothills, montane. Moist meadows, pond edges, openings.  Spring, summer.
Narraguinnep Natural Area, May 18, 2007.

It is easy to walk right over this tiny plant without noticing it, but the plant does often occur in large numbers on barren soils so that does help it attract attention.  I have most often found the plant in old two track roads that traverse recently moist meadows and forest openings. 

Edward Green named this plant Allocarya stipitata in 1887 from a specimen he collected in California in 1883.  Ivan Johnston renamed it Plagiobothrys scouleri in 1923, and then renamed it Plagiobothrys hispidulus in 1932.  The Greek, "plagio", meaning "oblique", and "bothros", meaning "pit", refer to the scar on the nutlet.  John Scouler was a naturalist and physician.  (More biographical information.)

William Weber maintains that the correct name for this plant is P. scouleri, but John Kartesz, ultimate authority for all names on this web site, indicates that P. scouleri is a plant of Nevada and the northwest United States. P. hispidulus occurs across all the West and is the only Plagiobothrys in the Four Corners region.

"Hispid" is Latin for "hairy or bristly"; botanically this word means, "clothed with stiff, bristle-like hairs". "Hispidulus" is the diminutive, thus, "clothed with very small stiff, bristle-like hairs". See the last photograph.

Foothills, montane. Moist meadows, pond edges, openings.  Spring, summer.
Narraguinnep Natural Area, June 18, 2007.

Foothills, montane. Moist meadows, pond edges, openings.  Spring, summer.
Narraguinnep Natural Area, June 18, 2007.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Plagiobothrys hispidulus