Caltha leptosepala

White marsh marigold

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

White marsh marigold is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and North Coast Ranges in marshes, pond margins, streambanks, and conifer forests at elevations of 900 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces white flowers with multiple rounded sepals in small clusters of one to four blooms. Growing 8 to 48 centimeters tall with erect stems and broad leaf bases, it has a distinctive spreading growth habit. Its leaves feature wide blades 2 to 9 centimeters across with slightly scalloped edges, supported by long petioles that can be longer or shorter than the leaf blade. When mature, the plant develops 4 to 15 elongated fruit structures 7 to 18 millimeters long with straight or slightly curved beaks.

Habitat: Marshes, pond margins, streambanks, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 900-3300 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, SNH, MP

California counties: Tulare, Modoc, Siskiyou, Mono, Butte, Nevada, Alpine, Amador, Humboldt, Lassen, Plumas, Tehama, Sierra, Shasta, Trinity, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Fresno, Mariposa, Del Norte, Placer

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