Castilleja exserta

Purple owl's-clover

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: annual · Native

Purple owl's-clover is a California native annual herb found in coastal, desert, and interior regions of California in grasslands, oak woodlands, and chaparral at elevations from sea level to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces spectacular white to purple-red bracts with delicate, thread-like lobes surrounding small flowers, creating eye-catching clusters up to 20 centimeters long. Growing with glandular-puberulent stems 10 to 45 centimeters tall, it has an upright and somewhat stiff appearance. Its leaves are finely divided with 5 to 9 thread-like lobes, each measuring 10 to 50 millimeters in length. The distinctive flowers feature a hooked beak and pouches 3 to 8 millimeters wide, creating an intricate and delicate botanical structure.

California counties: Humboldt, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Kern, Fresno, Los Angeles, Inyo, Marin, Ventura, Orange, Colusa, Santa Clara, San Benito, Merced, Butte, Placer, Sutter, Solano, San Mateo, Shasta, Monterey, Lake, Tehama, Glenn, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Mariposa, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Yolo, San Francisco, El Dorado, Santa Cruz, Kings, Calaveras, Madera, Alameda, Napa, Plumas

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