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Home / Browse / Camissonia / Paleyellow Suncup (subsp. pallida)
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Onagraceae family

Paleyellow Suncup (subsp. pallida) Camissonia pallida subsp. pallida subspecies

Native Specialist-bee host

Paleyellow Suncup (subsp. pallida) is an annual wildflower native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Camissoniopsis pallida is a low growing, yellow-flowered annual plant in the evening primrose family, Onagraceae. It is known by the common names pale primrose or pale yellow suncup. It is native to the desert and scrub habitat of the region where Arizona, California, and Nevada meet. It is a roughly hairy annual herb growing in a low patch on the ground, sometimes producing an erect stem from the basal rosette. The herbage is gray-green to reddish green. The leaves are lance-shaped and up to 3 centimeters long. The nodding inflorescence produces flowers with yellow petals 2 to 13 millimeters long, each with small red markings near the bases. The fruit is a straight to tightly coiled capsule. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 10 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Camissonia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (9) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — GloBI · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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