Desert Christmas Trees and Sand Food

Sherman Pass Road crosses the southern Sierra Nevadas from the Kern River Valley up into the conifers and back down into the western Mojave Desert region. For a wildflower lover such as myself, the variety of habitats and the changing elevations make it a carnival ride among the seasons and the blossoms, except winter, when the carnival shuts down. (Another such drive south of Kernville, takes you from the valley up into Jawbone Canyon and even higher up and back down into the Mojave Desert. Both are great voyages among the area's habitats, and this one is on mostly unpaved road, so it is not for the feint of heart.) My wife and I drove Sherman Pass Road, or portions of it three times last year, even getting stuck in some snow in June! The one time we drive it in its entirety, we spotted a very unusual desert wildflower as we dropped down toward the Mojave. It was a small, almost fungus-looking cone-shaped thing with some elegant purple star-shaped flowers scattered about on it.

It was Desert Christmas Tree!

Also known as Sand Plant, or simply pholisma, Desert Christmas Tree (Pholisma arenarium) is a member of the Lennoaceae Family and is a root parasite. And if it weren't for that inconspicuous little flower stalk, you'd never know it was there. It can be found in coastal dune scrub and desert scrub from San Luis Obispo County to San Diego, and in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts down to Baja California.

Doing a little research on this unusual looking plant, I discovered that its cousins, Sand Food (P. sonorae) and Sand Food (P.culiacana) (yep, both have the same common name), have gotten better press.

P. sonorae grows in the dunes of southeastern California and adjacent Arizona, as well as in the sand dunes of El Gran Desierto in Sonora, Mexico. The southernmost part of its range appears to be on the Sea of Cortez coast of Sonora, Mexico. P.culiacana is found in the rocky, subtropical bits south, in Sinaloa, Mexico.

But for the small fuzzy flower head of P. sonorae, which produces numerous tiny lavender flowers, the entire plant lives underground. It is a parasite with a thick scaly stem that may extend more than six feet into the dune, where it attaches to the roots of nearby shrubs. (An old, dried flower head with its long, scaly stem brings to mind a sand dollar attached to a long piece of seaweed.)

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