Abronia maritima

Red sand-verbena, red sand-verbena, red sand-verbena

Family: Nyctaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Red sand-verbena is a California native perennial herb found in southern California coastal regions including Channel Islands, southern Coast Ranges, and coastal areas below 100 meters elevation in coastal dune habitats. Flowering from February to October, this plant produces wine-red flowers with green to red perianth tubes in dense clusters up to 18 blooms wide. Growing in a prostrate form, it spreads across the ground in thick horizontal mats with short, erect branches extending up to 2 meters. Its fleshy leaves are broadly elliptic to oblong, measuring 5 to 7 centimeters long with petioles 5 to 30 millimeters in length. The fruit features thick, truncate wings that are coarsely net-veined and glandular-hairy near the top, measuring 10 to 14 millimeters long.

Habitat: Coastal dunes

Bloom period: Feb-Oct

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: s CCo, SCo, ChI

California counties: Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, San Diego, Monterey, Marin, Sonoma, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.