Balsamorhiza sagittata

Arrow leaved balsam root

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Arrow leaved balsam root is a California native perennial found in the high Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and eastern California mountains in open forest and scrub habitats at elevations of 1,400 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 2.5 to 4 centimeters long with distinctive wide ray heads. Growing with stems 20 to 60 centimeters tall that are short-tomentose and minutely glandular, it forms robust clumps in dry mountain landscapes. Its large basal leaves are widely triangular, 20 to 50 centimeters long, with a heart-shaped base, soft-hairy on the upper surface and densely woolly-white on the underside. The plant produces numerous flower heads with outer phyllaries 10 to 25 millimeters long, giving it a prominent and distinctive appearance in its mountain habitats.

Habitat: Open forest, scrub

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1400-2600 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH, GB

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