Andersonglossum occidentale

Western hound's tongue, Western Hound's Tongue

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western hound's tongue is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and North Coast Mountains in open, dry conifer forests at elevations of 900 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces blue flowers with rose to brown tints, bell-shaped and approximately 6 to 9 millimeters long with white appendages. Growing with clustered stems 15 to 50 centimeters tall that are spread with soft hairs, it forms multiple stems from a single base. Its basal leaves are rough-hairy and oblanceolate, measuring 5 to 15 centimeters long with a tapered base and winged petiole 4 to 10 centimeters in length. The fruit consists of nearly spherical nutlets that are ascending and spread outward.

Habitat: Open, dry, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 900-2600 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, NCoRI, CaRH, SNH, MP

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Shasta, Tehama, Trinity, Kern, Lassen, Mariposa, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Mendocino, Siskiyou, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, Modoc, Plumas, Butte, Glenn, Humboldt, Colusa, Lake, Monterey

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