Anelsonia eurycarpa

Broad podded phoenicaulis

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Broad podded phoenicaulis is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and eastern Sierra Nevada in broken rock, talus, and alpine slopes at elevations of 1,600 to 4,100 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces white to purple flowers in delicate umbel-like clusters with petals 4.5 to 6 millimeters long. Growing with several short stems 1 to 4 centimeters tall emerging from a many-branched cespitose caudex, it forms dense basal rosettes with overlapping, linear to broadly oblanceolate leaves covered in canescent hairs. Its leaves are entirely silvery with dense, minute, club-shaped hairs, creating a soft, silvery appearance across the plant's compact form. The fruit is distinctive, developing into large pods 1.5 to 3 centimeters long, 5 to 9 millimeters wide, with a purplish leathery surface and sharp-pointed tips.

Habitat: Broken rock, talus, slopes, ridges

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 1600-4100 m

Bioregions: SNH, SNE

California counties: Mono, Fresno, Inyo, Tuolumne, Tulare, Alpine, Madera

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