Anemopsis californica

Yerba mansa

Family: Saururaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Yerba mansa is a California native perennial found in the southern Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, coastal regions, Channel Islands, and desert areas in saline or alkaline wet habitats at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to September, this plant produces distinctive white flowers with petal-like white involucral bracts often tinged with red, forming a compact cone-shaped cluster. Growing with thick woody rhizomes and stems 8 to 80 centimeters tall, it spreads in wet meadows and seeps with characteristic thick underground stems. Its leaves are primarily basal, with blades 3 to 20 centimeters long, ranging from elliptic to oblong, and featuring a heart-shaped base with long petioles. The plant forms dense, low-growing colonies in moist environments, with a unique architectural structure of white flower clusters emerging from its green foliage.

Habitat: Common. Saline or alkaline soil, wet or moist areas, seeps, springs

Bloom period: Mar-Sep

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, s SN, Teh(?), sw ScV, SnJV, CW, SCo, ChI, WTR, SnGb(?), SnBr(?), PR, SNE, DMoj, DSon(?)

California counties: San Bernardino, Orange, Kern, Contra Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Solano, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Kings, Mono, Modoc, Monterey, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Benito, Shasta, Yolo, Sacramento, Marin

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