Desert Yellowhead
Desert Yellowhead lives on pale, harsh soils where bare ground is part of the habitat rather than an empty walking surface.
Artwork inspired by Neltje
Desert Yellowhead is a federally threatened perennial known from only two populations about five miles apart in southern Fremont County. Its entire physical footprint occupies less than twelve acres of Bureau of Land Management land near Beaver Rim, making apparently empty patches of pale badland soil part of one of Wyoming’s smallest plant ranges.
The smooth, tap-rooted plant grows to roughly a foot tall, with folded leathery leaves and a crowded crown of many small yellow disk-flower heads; it has no daisy-like ray petals. At Sand Draw it grows in shallow erosional depressions that collect drifting snow, while the Cedar Rim population occupies gravelly escarpment slopes at a higher elevation. Habitat is therefore as important as flower color for recognition.
- Range
- Central Wyoming endemic
- Federal status
- Threatened
- Habitat
- Alkaline badland soils
Quick guide
- Identify by
- Look during midsummer flowering after spring growth.
- Confirm with
- Confirm the sighting against sparse alkaline badlands are part of the clue.
Recognize and protect
- Time
- Look during midsummer flowering after spring growth.
- Read habitat
- Sparse alkaline badlands are part of the clue.
- Stay on route
- Do not drive or walk across occupied soil.
- Protect location
- Report privately without public coordinates.
Good to know
Apparently barren ground may hold seedlings, dormant crowns, and biological soil crust. Do not enter colonies, collect seeds, or use geotagged close-ups; share useful records privately with conservation staff.
Notice these
- A low gray-green perennial with woolly leaves and compact clusters of yellow flower heads
- sparsely vegetated, alkaline badland soils in a tiny portion of central Wyoming
- Perennial rosettes resume growth in spring and produce yellow flower heads as the dry landscape warms.