Cream cups are low, soft-pilose, many-stemmed annuals with colorless sap and opposite, entire, lance-linear leaves to 2" long that are mostly on the lower part of the plant.  The flowers are solitary and terminal on long, almost leafless stems.  Each flowering head has three hairy sepals and six white to cream-colored unfused petals, many (>12) stamens with flattened filaments, and a single pistil.  This is an exceedingly variable species, and is found commonly in open grassy clay or sandy places in valley grassland, chaparral and oak woodland, mostly below 3000', in much of cismontane California and reaching the west edge of the deserts.  It ranges to Utah and Arizona, and blooms from March to May.  These pictures were taken in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Platystemon 2) californicus.
Pronunciation: pla-ti-STEM-on ka-li-FOR-ni-kus.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.