Some distinctive features of this species are: the spinescent branch tips, as well as shorter internodal spines; the mostly compound leaves, with their 3 (or 2, or even 1!) leaflets bi-colored (glossy deep-green above, pale glaucous below); the dark purple tubular calyces, with their short lobes and prominent bulge halfway from the base on the upper edge (best seen in the flower buds); and, of course, the gloriously luminous bright-pink flowers with their small yellow mark at the base of the banner. The two flowers at the middle and lower left of the image have lost their keel petals, exposing the basally fused anther tube and numerous apical filaments and anthers.

The central California location and finely felt-like strigose hairs of the stems indicate that this is variety montana.

The ranges of Pickeringia montana and Ceanothus spinosus overlap in southern California, and these two chaparral species can be confused when not in flower...especially when the 'compound' leaves of P. montana are unifoliate. In this case, they can be distinguished by the presence of short petioles and stipules on C. spinosus, since P. montana has no stipules and leaves that are more or less sessile.