Small-seed Sandmat

Chamaesyce polycarpa

Small-seed Sandmat, Chamaesyce polycarpa, Photo by Michael Plagens

Vulture Mountains, Maricopa Co., Arizona. August 2016.

Small-seed Sandmat, Chamaesyce polycarpa, Photo by Michael Plagens

Observed in a wash near the Palo Verde Mountains, Imperial Co., California. 16 Feb. 2013. Pocket knife at lower right for scale. A close-up of the inflorescences on the same plants is shown below.

Small-seed Sandmat, Chamaesyce polycarpa, Photo by Michael Plagens

PERENNIAL: Grows mostly low to the ground with stems occasionally rising up to 15 cm.

LEAVES: The leaves are strictly opposite on the stems. Notice that the leaf bases are unequal and that the margins are entire.

RANGE: Common on rocky slopes, desert washes and at roadsides throughout the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and ranging into adjacent states.

FLOWERS: Minute flowers, usually one pistilate and many staminate, borne in groups within an a minute involucre. What appears to be white petals are actually petal-like appendages borne upon reddish glands on the rim of the involucre. The involucres, cup-like structures, occur mostly at branch ends and from leaf axils. Populations with larger, more showy inflorescences are common. These plants bloom nearly year round.

UNARMED: No thorns, but the milky sap can be a skin or eye irritant.

FRUIT: Very small capsules, ca. 1 mm, are three-parted and each contains usually three seeds. These seeds inside require high magnification to see their smooth surface.

Euphorbiaceae -- Spurge Family

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Sonoran Desert Field Guide
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Copyright Michael J. Plagens, page created 15 July 2007,
Updated 24 Sept. 2016