Flower:

Flowers are displayed in an open array on slender stalks that diverge near the end of a long smooth stem. Flowers are 1/3 to ½ inch across, star-shaped with 5 pink petals and 5 to 10 erect pink stamens with bright yellow tips. The single center ovary is bright green and egg shaped, with a frosty white stigma on the tip of the style. Two papery thin oval sepals embrace the base of the flower. The flower cluster starts with a single bloom on a long slender stalk but develops multiple branches through the season with new flowers opening briefly just once late in the day before quickly shedding both petals and sepals.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves very slender and cylindrical, 1 to 2 inches long, in dense basal clusters on a short, thick, semi-woody stem that is typically simple or few branched.

Fruit:

Fruit is an erect oval capsule about 1/8 inch long, green turning light tan at maturity. When ripe, it quickly splits opens shedding the small black seeds inside.

Notes:

Minnesota's two Fameflower species, Small-flowered and Rough-seeded Fameflower (Phemeranthus rugospermus), are very nearly identical in general appearance though easy to discriminate on several key characteristics. Perhaps the easiest might be that historical collections do not overlap in a single county (see maps). While that may suffice as a quick general guide it could easily provide the wrong answer - i.e. just because no one has found it somewhere before doesn't mean it's not there now. The best way is to count the stamens. P. rugospermus has anywhere between 12 and 25, typically +20, P. parviflorus only has 5 to 10, typically 6 to 8. It should be noted here that all major references (Gleason & Cronquist, Britton & Brown, and Flora of North America) are consistent with P. parviflorus having typically 5 stamens, 6 at most. But all of our observations and in photographs of specimens taken from Renville, Rock and Stearns counties, all of them have had 6 or more with 7 or 8 common. It can also be observed that the white stigma in P. parviflous is more globular (capitate), only occasionally visibly split into 3 parts, where on P. rugospermus it is clearly split into three linear parts. Fameflowers are well adapted to their hot, dry sunny habitats by their small cylindrical and succulent leaves, short fleshy stems and a flower period set to late afternoons and early evening. The flowers open quickly for just one day and then quickly shed sepals and petals before the next sun-up.