White Stemmed Blazingstar or White Stemmed Stickleaf

The white stemmed blazingstar or white stemmed stickleaf (Mentzelia albicaulis)

is very similar to the Jones blazingstar or Jones stickleaf (Mentzelia jonesii) and I ultimately decided this was the former, rather than the latter, but I'm not completely sure.

I ultimately made the decision based on the prominent white stems of the plant

which I photographed very near Carey's Castle in the south portion of Joshua Tree National Park, as well as the flowers which I think are a little smaller than the Jones blazingstar.

There are a number of members of the Mentzelia genus in Riverside County and some of the differences between species are very small.  The plant I found was intermeshed with the dead fronds of a Mojave yucca.

The beautiful yellow flower has five petals. Some have orange at the base

and the flowers are followed by s-shaped seed capsules. The leaves are green, hairy, and elliptic to lanceolate (shaped like the head of a lance, narrow and tapering toward the apex) in shape, as well as pinnately lobed (leaflets arranged on each side of a common stock).

The white stems are mostly hairless.