Mohavea confertiflora
species of plant
Mohavea confertiflora, the ghost flower, is a plant of the family Plantaginaceae. It is a native of the Southwestern United States, southern California, and three states of northwest Mexico.
It is found growing in the arid conditions of the Mojave Desert and the Sonoran Desert (including Colorado Desert), below 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in elevation. It also grows in those deserts' sky islands habitats.
Description
Mohavea confertiflora is an annual herb growing up to 2 feet (0.61 metres) tall. It flowers March to April. This flower, which does not produce nectar, has adapted a morphology resembling the flower Mentzelia involucrata, which often grows in the same habitat. Mentzelia involucrata produces nectar to attract female bees of the genus Xeralictus.
In areas where their ranges overlap, Mohavea confertifolia attracts the same pollinators to its flowers through floral mimicry: Mohavea flowers contain marks that resemble female Xeralictus; these marks operate as a sign stimulus to the male bee, which enters the flower and in doing so pollinates the Mohavea.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mohavea confertiflora” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mohavea, confertiflora and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q3319117. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mohavea confertiflora” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.