Camissoniopsis hirtella

Hairy sun cup

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Hairy sun cup is a California native annual herb found in northwestern, Sierra Nevada, central western, and southwestern regions on open shrubby slopes, especially in burns, at elevations below 2,300 meters. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces pale yellow flowers with petals 2 to 9 millimeters long. Growing with ascending stems less than 60 centimeters tall, it forms a distinctive rosette with spreading hairs. Its leaves are narrowly ovate to ovate, 10 to 80 millimeters long, with minute teeth and nearly sessile on the stem. The plant produces distinctive cylindrical fruits 13 to 20 millimeters long that are generally 1 to 2 times coiled.

Habitat: Open shrubby slopes, especially in burns

Bloom period: Mar-Aug

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: NW, SN, CW, SW

California counties: Fresno, Ventura, Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Colusa, Santa Clara, Glenn, Lake, Tehama, San Francisco, Mendocino, San Benito, El Dorado, Santa Barbara, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Amador, Solano, Napa, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Sonoma, Tulare, San Mateo, Madera, Yolo, Shasta

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