Cordylanthus capitatus

Yakima bird’s-beak, also called clustered bird’s-beak (Cordylanthus capitatus), is an uncommon plant of the Western U. S. Annual with spreading branches, 10-50 cm, glaucous-green or grey-purple, densely glandular- and nonglandular-hairy. Stems paniculately branched; herbage green, pubescent (spreading-viscid and short-glandular-pilose) with long soft white hairs. Leaves of main stem alternate, deeply divided into 3 linear to thread-like segments, 20-40 mm; of the branches entire, few and remote. Inflorescences “leafy” 2-4 flowered small capitate spikes, 15-20 mm, head-like; bracts gland-tipped, of 2 kinds: those subtending the spike 4-7, linear-lanceolate, palmately divided (lobes 3 in lower ½), 10-20 mm; those subtending each flower entire or pinnately divided, 12-18 mm, elliptical, acute, entire, arched outward, purplish. Yakima bird’s-beak flowers from July to early September. The flowers are purple. It is likely to be found in dry, gravelly soil derived from volcanic rocks, within a few feet of sagebrush.