Click for Physaria rectipes.

Physaria acutifolia is most often a small, low-growing plant three-to-five inches in height and diameter, but it can be, as shown at left, several times that size.  The plant has multiple flower stems with  numerous bright flower clusters.  Flower stems can be reclining to erect.  In winter, the dried flower stem skeletons are often visible and the sage-green ground-hugging basal leaves are very noticeable against the barren ground.  (Also see below.)

Per Axel Rydberg named this species in 1901 from a specimen collected by Alice Eastwood in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1892.  "Acutifolia" is Greek for "sharp-edged foliage".

Semi-desert, foothills. Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring.
Canyonlands National Park, Utah, April 14, 2004.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 27, 2005, May 5, 2009, and May 31, 2011.

Physaria acutifolia leaf shape is distinctive, starting very narrow and then widening to a spade shape.  Even more noticeable in the spring are the very bright yellow flowers on its common habitat of bare sandy soil.  Physaria acutifolia spreads its seeds in a small area and the seeds are quite successful in germinating, so when one plant is spotted, a number of others are almost sure to be within ten feet.

As they mature, the inflated seed pods range in color from green to yellow to pink to purple.

Semi-desert, foothills. Shrublands, woodlands, openings. Spring.
Canyonlands of the Ancients National Monument, May 21, 2011.

As the photograph at left shows, under magnification the blue-green leaves of Physaria appear to be pitted.  These pits are the center of a spiral of projecting arms that show in the false color yellow-green of the photograph below.  Here you can see the star-burst pattern of the hairs; the leaf appears to be covered by thousands of minute sea anemones.  Each of the star bursts is about 1/3 millimeter in diameter, has about 20 arms, and is attached to the leaf surface at one point in the center of the bottom of the pit.  At the lower left, upper center, and several other points on the leaf shown in the above photograph, stellate hairs have fallen off and the darker green of the actual leaf surface shows through.

Asa Gray named this plant Vesicaria fendleri in 1849 from a specimen collected by the highly respected Augustus Fendler near Santa Fe in 1847.  Sereno Watson named it Lesquerella fendleri in 1888.  O'Kane and Al-Shehbaz renamed it Physaria fendleri in 2002.   (More biographical information.)

Semi-desert. Sandy openings, shrublands. Spring.
The Hogback, New Mexico, April 24, 2007.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color KeySpecies present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Physaria acutifolia

Range map for Physaria fendleri