National Collection Spotlight: Sand Food

Pholisma sonorae (sand food) is a rare plant found in the deserts of southeastern California, Arizona, and El Gran Diesierto in Sonora, Mexico. This parasitic plant has a long stem that reaches about 6 feet below the surface where it attaches to the root of a nearby host plant such as desert buckwheat. Photo Credit: USFWS/Jim A. Bartel © 2005

Sand food (Pholisma sonorae) is an imperiled species native to the sandy dunes of Arizona, California, and northern Mexico. This strange, rare plant does not contain chlorophyll and relies on nearby plants for nutrients. Sand food has a long stem which reaches underground for nearby host plants and attaches to their roots, from which this unique parasitic species can absorb nutrients and energy. Its mushroom-like “cap” of this plant is formed by its inflorescences containing tiny beautiful purple flowers which line the outer edge.

Sand food is held in the CPC National Collection at Desert Botanical Garden, where it possesses a Plant Sponsorship to help support efforts in the conservation of this species, as well as at California Botanic Garden and Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. At these institutions, critical work for the species’ conservation is being conducted in the form of propagation research, genetic studies, seed collection, and seed banking.

Learn more about conservation actions taken for Sand food on its National Collection Plant Profile, and help support conservation of rare plants with a Plant Sponsorship.