Turkish rugging is a low, much-branched annual with reddish-purple, ± pubescent stems ascending to erect and forking in repeated pairs, from 4" to 8" tall.  The leaves are basal, tomentose below, thinly hairy to glabrous above, oblong to narrow-ovate on petioles to 2+" long.  The main stem is leafless.  The flowers are either solitary in the forks or clustered at the ends of the branchlets, and are subtended by a whorl of somewhat linear bracts.  Each flower has a cylindric involucre with six teeth that are hooked or spreading, no petals and a six-lobed calyx with three long outer and three short inner lobes that are pink to rose-colored and hairy.  There are nine stamens.  The fruit is an achene.  Turkish rugging is common in dry rocky hills and sandy places in coastal sage scrub and chaparral below 4000' from San Diego and San Bernardino Counties to Monterey Co.  It is also found in desert scrub and in burned-over areas. It is highly variable and blooms from April to July.  These pictures were taken in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Chorizanthe 2) staticoides.
Pronunciation: kor-i-ZAN-the sta-ti-KO-i-dees.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.