Calibrachoa parviflora

Wild petunia

Family: Solanaceae · Type: annual · Native

Wild petunia is a California native annual found in coastal western California, southern California, northern Channel Islands (Santa Rosa Island), peninsular ranges, and desert regions in open washes, dry streambeds, and drying shorelines at elevations below 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to November, this plant produces purple to white flowers with a distinctive white spot on the lower lip, approximately 4 to 10 millimeters long. Growing with prostrate to decumbent stems forming dense mats up to 70 centimeters long, it develops short, leafy axillary branches. Its leaves range from 5 to 20 millimeters long, varying from linear to oblong, oblanceolate, or obovate, and are either petioled or sessile. The small fruits are 2 to 4.5 millimeters long, containing pale brown seeds with a pitted surface.

Habitat: Open washes, dry streambeds, drying shorelines

Bloom period: Mar-Nov

Elevation: < 1700 m

Bioregions: CW, SCo, n ChI (Santa Rosa Island), PR, DSon

California counties: Santa Barbara, Riverside, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Santa Clara, Imperial, San Mateo, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, Alameda, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Napa, Yolo

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