genus

Sandpaper Plants

Petalonyx

Field notes

Petalonyx is a small genus of flowering plants native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They are known commonly as sandpaper plants, and are most often found in warm, dry desert regions. Sandpaper plants are subshrubs that get their common name from their rough foliage, which is covered in tiny, stiffly curved hairs. They bear racemes of claw-shaped flowers with long stamens extending well beyond the corolla, and unusual in that they emerge from outside the corolla.

Species:

Petalonyx linearis - narrowleaf sandpaper plant

Petalonyx nitidus - shinyleaf sandpaper plant

Petalonyx parryi - Parry's sandpaper plant

Petalonyx thurberi - Thurber's sandpaper plant

Petalonyx crenatus

Read more on Wikipedia

Children

Range

United States

Greener is more native, amber more introduced; paler is less certain. How this was decided

Key traits

Layer
Shrubs

From USDA PLANTS.

Top native sandpaper plants All

Native to the US, ranked by caterpillars, then bees and other hosts, food, flowers and shelter.