Pholisma sonorae | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Boraginales |
Family: | Boraginaceae |
Genus: | Pholisma |
Species: | P. sonorae |
Binomial name | |
Pholisma sonorae | |
Pholisma sonorae, commonly known as sandfood, is a rare and unusual species of flowering plant endemic to the Sonoran Deserts to the west of Yuma, Arizona in the California Yuha, Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert, and south in the Yuma Desert, where it is known from only a few locations. [2]
Pholisma sonorae is a perennial herb which grows in sand dunes, its fleshy stem extending up to two meters (six feet) below the surface and emerging above as a small rounded or ovate form. It may be somewhat mushroom-shaped if enough sand blows away to reveal the top of the stem. It is a parasitic plant which attaches to the roots of various desert shrubs such as wild buckwheats, ragweeds, plucheas, and Tiquilia plicata and T. palmeri to obtain nutrients.
As a heterotroph, the Pholisma sonorae plant lacks chlorophyll and is grayish, whitish, or brown in color. It has glandular scale-like leaves along its surface. The plant obtains water not from its host plants, but through stomata in its leaves. [2] The plant blooms in centimeter-wide flowers which are pink to purple in color with white margins.
This was an important food item for certain desert-dwelling Native American peoples, including the Cocopah and the Hia C-eḍ O'odham. [3]
The plant is rare as its habitat of shifting dune sands has been depleted by development.
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes, with little or no vegetation, are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.
The Namib is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends 450 kilometres (280 mi) from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual precipitation ranges from 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in the aridest regions to 200 millimetres (7.9 in) at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55–80 million years, the Namib may be the oldest desert in the world and contains some of the world's driest regions, with only western South America's Atacama Desert to challenge it for age and aridity benchmarks.
The Algodones Dunes is a large sand dune field, or erg, located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of California, near the border with Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California. The field is approximately 45 miles (72 km) long by 6 miles (9.7 km) wide and extends along a northwest-southeast line that correlates to the prevailing northerly and westerly wind directions. The name "Algodones Dunes" refers to the entire geographic feature, while the administrative designation for that portion managed by the Bureau of Land Management is the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. In 1966, Imperial Sand Hills was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. The Algodones Dunes are split into many different sections. These sections include Glamis, Gordon's Well, Buttercup, Midway, and Patton's Valley. Although the Arabic-derived Spanish word algodones translates to "cotton plants", the origin of the toponym is unknown.
Błędów Desert, is an area of sands and gravels located between Błędów and the villages of Chechło and Klucze in Poland. The area lies mainly on the Silesian Highlands in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. The Błędów Desert is Central Europe's largest accumulation of loose sand in an area away from any sea, deposited thousands of years ago by a melting glacier. It occupies an area of 32 km2 (12 sq mi). The sands have an average depth of 40 m, up to 70 m at the maximum. The Biała Przemsza River divides the desert in two from east to west. The northernmost part of the desert is closed to visitors because it is a military zone, where exercises take place.
The Gran Desierto de Altar is one of the major sub-ecoregions of the Sonoran Desert, located in the State of Sonora, in northwest Mexico. It includes the only active erg dune region in North America. The desert extends across much of the northern border of the Gulf of California, spanning more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) east to west and over 50 kilometres (31 mi) north to south. It constitutes the largest continuous wilderness area within the Sonoran Desert.
Lennooideae is a subfamily of parasitic flowering plants of southwestern North America and northwestern South America.
Cistanche is a worldwide genus of holoparasitic desert plants in the family Orobanchaceae. They lack chlorophyll and obtain nutrients and water from the host plants whose roots they parasitize. They are often known as desert hyacinths.
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions, where little precipitation occurs, and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location.
Chorizanthe pungens is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Monterey spineflower. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the San Francisco Bay Area south along the Central Coast.
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Monardella undulata subsp. crispa, synonym Monardella crispa is a rare subspecies of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name crisp monardella. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from the sand dunes on the coastline of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.
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Pholisma arenarium is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by several common names, including desert Christmas tree, scaly-stemmed sand plant, and purple sand food. As the name implies, the loaf-like part of the root is edible. It is native to northwestern Mexico, Arizona and southern California, where it grows in many habitat types, including desert, chaparral, and sandy coastal dunes. It is a fleshy perennial herb taking a compact cylindrical or ovate shape up to 20 or 30 centimeters tall above ground, often with part of the stem below the sandy surface. It is a parasitic plant growing on the roots or of various shrubs such as burrobush, Yerba Santa, California croton, rabbitbrush, and ragweeds. As a heterotroph which derives its nutrients from other plants, it lacks chlorophyll and is brownish-gray or whitish in color. There are hairy, glandular, pointed leaves along the surface of the plant. Flowers emerge between them, each roughly one centimeter wide, the rounded corolla lavender to deep or bright purple with a white margin.
Bonnie Carolyn Templeton was an American botanist. She served as curator of botany for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County from 1929 to 1970, a time when women in science were uncommon.
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