General: Fiveneedle Pricklyleaf (Thymophylla pentachaeta) is a low-growing, upright subshrub with thin little green leaves and yellow daisy flowers that blooms in the spring and fall. Often this compact little shrub stands out as bright green when everything else is brown. After blooming, the leaves fall off and the shrub seems to almost disappear.

Fiveneedle Pricklyleaf is a fairly common component of vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils along washes and on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Other Names: Thymophylla pentachaeta var. belenidium, Dyssodia belenidium, Dyssodia pentachaeta var. belenidium, Dyssodia thurberi

Plant Form: Tiny, upright shrub emerging from a single, stout taproot; stems sweep out and upward.

Height: Usually about ankle high, but to about 12 inches.

Bark: Light brown.

Stems: Thin, bending upward.

Leaves: Appear thread-like and dark green, but sometimes deeply divided into several thread-like segments.

Flowers: Inflorescence: single composite flowerhead atop a short stalk that stands above the leafy parts. Flowers: disk and ray flowers, yellow, usually about 1/2-inch diameter.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: About 3,000 to 5,000 feet.

Distribution: California to Texas and south into South America.

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