Calyptridium monandrum

Common pussypaws

Family: Montiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Common pussypaws is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, San Joaquin Valley, central western, southwestern, southern eastern Sierra Nevada, and desert regions in open sandy areas and scrublands at elevations generally below 2,000 meters. Flowering from January to July, this plant produces delicate pink to reddish flowers in small axillary clusters. Growing with spreading or decumbent stems 1.5 to 18 centimeters tall, it develops a slender taproot and leafy branching structure. Its basal leaves are narrow and oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, measuring 1 to 5 centimeters long and typically withering as the plant fruits. The fruit is an oblong to linear capsule 3 to 6 millimeters long, containing 4 to 10 tiny seeds.

Habitat: Widespread in desert and scrub, open areas, sandy soils, burns

Bloom period: Jan-Jul

Elevation: generally < 2000 m

Bioregions: s SN, Teh, SnJV, CW, SW, SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Tulare, Kern, Ventura, Riverside, San Diego, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Mono, Imperial, Orange, Alpine, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Fresno, Shasta, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, San Benito, Nevada, Merced, Siskiyou, Santa Cruz

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