Carpenteria californica

Tree-anemone, Tree-Anemone

Family: Hydrangeaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Tree-anemone is a rare California native shrub ranked 1B.2 by CNPS, found in the central Sierra Nevada Foothills between the Kings and San Joaquin rivers in Fresno County, inhabiting streambanks, chaparral, and oak woodland at elevations of 340 to 1,340 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces large white flowers 3 to 6 centimeters wide with delicate, nearly round petals that are profoundly fragrant. Growing as a compact shrub less than 3 meters tall with bark that peels in thin, wide gray sheets, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its persistent leaves are leathery and narrowly elliptic, 4 to 10 centimeters long, with a green upper surface and pale, short-woolly undersides that have margins slightly rolled under. The fruit develops as a small conical capsule 0.6 to 1.2 centimeters wide, containing fusiform seeds in shades of red-brown.

Habitat: Streambanks, chaparral, oak woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 340-1340 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNF (between Kings, San Joaquin rivers, Fresno Co.).

California counties: Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Butte, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Diego, Santa Clara, Madera, 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.