Upright annual with a few smooth, slender stems. Grayish-blue-green leaves are deeply divided growing mostly at plant base in a dense cluster, a few on the stems. Cup-shaped yellow flowers solitary on long (occasionally more than 1), leafless stalks.
Plants without stems or nearly so; leaves basal and on stems; flower buds nodding, petals to 1 inch long, yellow; leaves divided 3 times, leaves short-narrow, condensed, leaves fern-like; seed minutely pitted, light brown to grayish.
Habitat
Sandy and gravelly soils, desert washes, flats, slopes, dry stream beds, roadsides and alluvial fans or bajadas (accumulations of fan-shaped gravelly debris flowing from streams and spreading onto flat land along the base of a mountain).
Flower Characteristics
Broadly cup-shaped flowers have 4 yellow petals to 1 inch long that overlap slightly at the edge. 2 fused leaf-like sepals under the petals wither as the flower opens. Flowers attach to the stalk via a cone-like structure without a spreading outer rim.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Stems and leaves grayish-blue-green. Leaves are divided 3 times into short linear lobes and grow only at the plant's base. Leaf blades are nearly equal in length, about 3/4 inch long, with the final lobe of the blade tapering to a pointed tip.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Capsule is green, 1-1/2 to 3 inches long, cylindrical and narrow. It splits from the base upward making an audible snap and has enough force to fling the mature seeds some distance from the parent plant.
Globe-shaped to egg-shaped, about 1/16 inch wide with a few very small but deep indentations (pits) on its surface. Seed color ranges from light brown to grayish.