Habit: Annual, fleshy.
Stem: prostrate or reclined, many-branched, brittle; angles +- glabrous, bristly, or generally with hooked prickles.
Leaf: cauline, lower opposite, upper alternate; petioles generally winged, clasping; blade pinnate-lobed, uppermost reduced, short-petioled, generally deltate, 3-lobed, with small, sharp bristles both surfaces.
Inflorescence: terminal, axillary, opposite leaves, or flowers 1; pedicels present.
Flower: calyx lobes hairy, bristly-ciliate; corolla rotate, lobes +- = tube, generally hairy; stamens included, equal, equally attached; ovary bristly-hairy, chamber appearing 1, style 1, 2-lobed in distal 1/2.
Fruit: capsule, spheric, stout-bristly-hairy.
Seed: 1--8, spheric, brown, pitted or honeycombed.
Species In Genus: 3 species: California, Arizona, Baja California.
Etymology: (Greek: scale mouth)
Jepson eFlora Author: Robert W. Patterson & Richard R. Halse
Unabridged Reference: Constance 1939 Bull Torrey Bot Club 66:341--352Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Pholistoma
Previous taxon: Phacelia viscida var. viscidaNext taxon: Pholistoma auritum