Stansbury Cliffrose

Stansbury Cliffrose
(Cowania mexicana
  -- var. stansburiana)

A shrub, four or five feet tall, which grows on dry rocky hillsides among sagebrush. The very fragrant flowers have 5 white petals and many conspicuous yellow stamens. The blossoms are almost an inch across. They bloom all through the spring and summer.

Each blossom has many stamens, and 4 to 10 pistils. Each pistil matures into a seed with a long feathery tail.

This plant was first collected on Stansbury Island in the Great Salt Lake in 1849.

Some botanists now classify this plant as Purshia stansburiana, and believe it to be a hybrid between bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) and the Mexican cliffrose (formerly Cowania mexicana, but now classified as Purshia mexicana).