Much-branched, partially parasitic; yellow or yellow and purple club-shaped flowers resembling a bird's beak grow in dense head-like clusters at the branch tips where leaf-like sepals partly hide the flower; green thread-like leaves are deeply divided.
Much-branched annual; finely divided leaves of 3 to 5 divisions; tight head-like clusters of hairy, yellow or yellow and purple flowers at branch tips; flowers fused into a tube, strongly 2-lipped at the top, subtended by 1 or more finely divided bracts.
Habitat
Found on roadsides, flats, sandy areas on plains and mesas, dry hillsides, often in open pine forests and growing among junipers.
Flower Characteristics
The flowering stem is a dense head-like cluster with 2 to 10 flowers (usually 2 or 3) but sometimes solitary. Each flower is about 1/2 to 1 inch long, covered in white hairs, minutely glandular and club-shaped with 2 lips that are nearly equal in size.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Leaves and stems often finely hairy but can be smooth; leaves are 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches long, deeply divided into 3 to 5 very narrow thread-like segments all along the stems. Lower leaf margins are 3 to 7 lobed, upper leaf margins smooth or dissected.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Fruit about 1/2 inch long, dry, slender, flattened, oblong, 2 chambers (cavities) of seeds; fruit opens at maturity to release numerous seeds.
Seeds are brown, about 1/16 inch long, oblong to egg-shaped, honeycombed (containing many small holes in its structure) with net-like markings on its surface.