| Description: Gravel Ghost (Atrichoseris platyphylla), a.k.a tobacco weed and Parachute Plant, is an annual herb that is native to California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. It produces a low basal rosette of rounded leaves patterned with gray-green and purple patches at ground level. It sends up a weedy-looking thin branching stem topped with a number of attractive, fragrant white or pink-tinged flowers with layered ray florets about 1 inch across, that are rectangular and toothed. Because the stems that support them are 1-2.5 feet tall, and very thin, they often appear to hover in the air, hence the common name gravel ghost. because. The flowers are fragrant and readily withering. They are found growing in the Mojave and Sonoran desert valleys and washes at elevations less than 4,500 feet. They flower mostly between March and May. |
