[Illustration: Lesquerella gordoni]
Common names: BLADDERPOD, BEAD-POD
Arizona and Texas deserts: (_Lesquerella gordoni_). Yellow.
February-May.
California desert: (_Lesquerella palmeri_). Yellow. March-May.
Mustard family. Size: 6 to 8 inches high.
Extensive sections of the desert are gilded in springtime with this
low-growing annual herb which is one of the earliest of the desert
flowers.
Following moist winters, it covers dry mesas and plains below 4,000 feet
from Oklahoma west to Utah, and southward into northern Mexico. After
the seed pods have matured, the plant is reported to furnish valuable
forage for range stock.