Calochortus elegans

Cat's ear, Cat's Ear

Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cat's ear is a California native perennial found in eastern Klamath Ranges and northern Coast Ranges interior in open woodland at elevations of 1,500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces green-white flowers with dark purple bases, 12 to 20 millimeters long, delicately ciliate and hairy with distinctive bell-shaped petals. Growing with slender, wavy stems 5 to 15 centimeters tall, it emerges from persistent basal leaves up to 20 centimeters long. Its single or clustered flowers (up to 7) feature delicate petals with a shallow nectary bordered by short hairs and ciliate membranes. The fruit is a nodding, widely elliptic capsule 1 to 2 centimeters long, bearing irregular light brown seeds.

Habitat: Open woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1500-2500 m

Bioregions: e KR, NCoRI

California counties: Trinity, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Shasta, Plumas, Mendocino

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