Calochortus monophyllus
Yellow star-tulip
Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Yellow star-tulip is a California native perennial found in the Cascade Range foothills, southwestern High Sierra Nevada, and northern and central Sierra Nevada in wooded slopes with clay-loam soils at elevations of 400 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces deep yellow flowers with red-brown spots near the base, bell-shaped and approximately 16 to 20 millimeters long with brown-fringed, densely hairy petals. Growing with slender, sometimes wavy stems 8 to 20 centimeters tall, the plant emerges from a basal leaf 10 to 30 centimeters long. Its single basal leaf is persistent, with 0 to 3 smaller cauline leaves that become progressively reduced upward, ranging from 1 to 7 centimeters long and lanceolate to linear in shape. The plant produces nodding, winged fruits 12 to 20 millimeters long, which contain irregular dark brown seeds with a distinctive net-like pattern.
Habitat: Wooded slopes, clay-loam soils
Bloom period: Apr-May
Elevation: 400-1200 m
Bioregions: CaRF, sw CaRH, n&c SN
California counties: El Dorado, Butte, Amador, Calaveras, Placer, Nevada, Tehama, Tuolumne, Plumas, Yuba, Sierra, Shasta, Lake, Humboldt, Solano, Mariposa, San Bernardino
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.