Semi-desert. Depressions in rock. Spring.
Lower Butler Wash, Utah, May 3, 2007.

This minute beauty grows only in southeast Utah in sandy, gravel depressions in sandstones slabs.  Utah plant expert Stanley Welsh indicates that flowers usually are 10-12 millimeters across with some isolated populations as large as 25 mm.  Flowers pictured here are in this larger range.  

In 1854 John Torrey named this plant Talinum brevifolium.  In 1997 Hershkovitz placed it in a genus, Phemeranthus, that Rafinesque named in 1814.  The genus name is from the Greek "ephemeros", "ephemeral", "living for one day" and "anthos", "flower".

Semi-desert. Depressions in rock. Spring.
Lower Butler Wash, Utah, May 3, 2007.