Camissoniopsis bistorta

California sun cup

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

California sun cup is a native perennial found in southwestern California's sandy coastal fields and grassland openings at elevations below 600 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers with delicate petals 7 to 15 millimeters long and often featuring 1 to 2 basal spots. Growing with decumbent to ascending stems 50 to 80 centimeters tall that peel and are covered in strigose or spreading hairs, it develops a rosetted form. Its leaves range from 12 to 120 millimeters long, generally lanceolate or linear, with minute teeth or nearly smooth edges. The fruit is distinctively slender, measuring 12 to 40 millimeters long and slightly twisted or wavy.

Habitat: Sandy fields near coast or clay soils in grassland to openings in coastal-sage scrub or chaparral

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 600 m

Bioregions: SW

California counties: San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Inyo, Santa Barbara

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