Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Small, herbaceous annual, erect and usually ascending, 2-25 cm, covered with white, strigose to bristly appressed hairs.

Leaves: Mostly linear, again covered with white, bristly, appressed hairs, opposite below and fused near the base, with upper leaves often alternate.

Flowers: Small, white flowers which appear to have 5-6 minute petals at the tip of 1-3 mm corolla, flowers and sepals having evident long, white, strigose or bristly hairs, style persistent and attached to the receptacle.

Fruits: Nutlets, (3 wide and 1 narrow), obovate to rounded, with thin, membranous wings surrounding the fruits and marginal, hooked prickles, off-white.

Ecology: Found on disturbed soils in sagebrush scrub, creosote flats, pi-on-juniper woodlands, and grasslands, from 500-7,500 ft (152-2286 m); flowers April-May.

Notes: This species is similar in appearance to Cryptantha, however, look for the slightly larger flowers and rounded, winged discs of the fruit to differentiate.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Synonyms: Gruvelia setosa

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011

Etymology: Pectocarya comes from the Greek pectos, "combed," and karua, "nut," because of comb-like margins on some of the nutlets, while setosa means bristly hairy.