Aphanes occidentalis

Western lady's mantle

Family: Rosaceae · Type: annual · Native

Western lady's mantle is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range foothills, Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, central western, and southwestern California in seasonally moist grasslands, chaparral, and woodland areas at elevations of 30 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces tiny greenish flowers less than 2 millimeters long. Growing with delicate stems 2 to 10 centimeters tall, it forms low, compact clusters. Its leaves are distinctive with widely ovate stipules, deeply lobed blades about 2 to 5 millimeters across, featuring three main lobes that extend more than two-thirds to the base and are further toothed or subdivided. The fruit is a small, ovoid achene approximately 1 millimeter long.

Habitat: Seasonally moist grassland, chaparral, woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 30-1200 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SNF, ScV, CW, SW

California counties: Santa Barbara, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Plumas, Butte, Nevada, Kern, Monterey, Sonoma, Los Angeles, Lake, Riverside, Napa, San Benito, Orange, San Bernardino, San Mateo, San Diego, Santa Clara, Mendocino, Yuba, Fresno, Marin, Mariposa, El Dorado, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Amador, Calaveras, Sutter, Tuolumne, Placer, Solano, Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Humboldt, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Del Norte, Ventura

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