PRICKLY PHLOX

Prickly phlox, a Southern California native shrub with deep rose-pink blooms and short needle-like leaves, is a cliffhanger.

The plant, which reaches a height of three feet, likes to cling to gravelly ridges and rocky cliffs. But it also thrives in fields, on grassy mountain slopes and in other dry, open spaces.

Showy, loose clusters of flowers cover the outer edges of the widely branched shrubs. The blossoms, an inch to 1 1/2-inches across, flare out from narrow tubes into flat blooms, each with five petals. They have white centers.

Although usually pink, prickly phlox blooms, in rare cases, can be white, cream or lilac blooms. They have a light, delicate fragrance.

The plant’s small, prickly, light-green leaves are needle-like and grow in bunches on the many woolly stems. The rigid leaves are about a half-inch long.

Prickly phlox (Leptodactylon californicum) are in bloom from February through May.

When not in bloom, the shrub is hardly noticeable among other plants in chaparral and coastal sage-brush terrain.

Leptodactylon in Greek means narrow fingers, referring to the leaves. Pictured here are blossoms on a rocky slope along San Fernando Road near the intersection of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways in Sylmar. There are about 60 species of phlox, all native to North America.