Calia secundiflora

Texas mountain laurel, Texas Mountain Laurel

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Texas mountain laurel is a naturalized shrub found in San Jacinto Valley in canyon and rocky chaparral habitats at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering in spring, this plant produces striking blue-purple flowers with white spots and darker purple streaks, creating dramatic pendulous clusters up to 10 centimeters long. Growing as an evergreen shrub up to 5 meters tall, it develops a compact, multi-stemmed structure with woody branches. Its leathery leaves are compound with 5 to 11 elliptic-obovate leaflets, each 2 to 5 centimeters long, arranged along stems 6 to 15 centimeters in length. The distinctive red seeds are large, measuring 1 to 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and develop in woody, pendulous seed pods.

Habitat: Canyons, rocky slopes, chaparral

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: SCo (San Jacinto Valley)

California counties: Riverside

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