Stems often prominently reddish purple. Phyllary margins proximally with sharply delimited, white-scarious portions, lacerate-ciliate at base. Disc floret corollas glabrous or nearly so. Pappi outer crowns of paleae or narrow squamellae 0.5-1 mm plus inner of 8-15 barbellate bristles, length ¹ / 2 - ¹ / 3 disc corollas. 2n = 16.

Flowering Jan-May. Sandy or gravelly flats or washes, dunes; 100-900 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev.; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora).

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous winter annuals, prostrate, diffusely branched, herbage covered with stiff, white hairs.

Leaves: Leaves (phyllaries), alternate, thickish, often tufted below heads, linear to spatulate, obtuse to subacute, entire, 5-10 mm long, covered with stiff, white hairs. The upper leaves subtend the heads.

Flowers: Heads somewhat showy, radiate, rays white to purple, often dark-veined, many, corollas 6-11.5 mm long, ligules 5-8.5 mm long, disk flowers yellow, many, receptacles convex, naked, involucres broad, bell-shaped or hemispheric, phyllaries 4-6 mm, many in 1 series, equal, folded, with acuminate tips, purplish, solitary heads borne subsessile or on short stems to 25 cm.

Fruits: Achenes 2-nerved, compressed, oblong to obovate, finely appressed-hairy, light brown, 1.5-2 mm long. Pappus of 0-12 , 1-2 mm long, with several slender scales, 0.5-1 mm long, these dissected into bristles.

Ecology: Found on sandy or gravelly soild on flats, dunes, deserts and washes, from 200-3,500 ft (61-1067 m); flowering February-May.

Distribution: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah; Mexico.

Notes: Monoptilon spp. are easy to recognize by their compact, often decumbent growth form; relatively large daisy flowers with white rays and yellow centers; and somewhat thick leaves covered with stiff, white hairs. Differentiate from M. bellidforme by the pappus attached to the top of the seed; M. bellioides has a pappus of several bristles of unequal lengths, plus sometimes a few scales; M. bellidiforme has pappus consisting of a scarious cup plus single plumose bristle.

Ethnobotany: Unknown.

Etymology: Monoptilon comes from the Greek monos for one and ptilon for feather, referring to the single plumose bristle attached to the seed of sister species M. bellidiforme; bellioides means resembling the genus Bellis.

Synonyms: Eremiastrum bellioides

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011