Chamaesyce hooveri

Chamaesyce hooveri NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

ITIS Reports — Chamaesyce hooveri ITIS (the Integrated Taxonomic Information System) is a source for authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

FWS Digital Media Library — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video.

Euphorbia hooveri is a species of euphorb known by the common names Hoover’s sandmat and Hoover’s spurge. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the rare vernal pools of the Central Valley. Due to the elimination of most of its habitat, it became a federally listed threatened species in 1997.

This is an annual herb forming flat mats of thin, hairless stems. The stems are ringed with pairs of tiny, minutely toothed round leaves, each gray-green leaf blade only a few millimeters wide. The inflorescence is a cyathium only two millimeters wide. The cyathium is made up of flat, white appendages surrounding a single minute female flower within a cluster of several male flowers. The female flower develops into a spherical fruit containing white seed. The seeds germinate once the pool evaporates with the arrival of summer