Caulanthus cooperi

Cooper caulanthus

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Cooper caulanthus is a California native annual found in northern Transverse Ranges, eastern Peninsular Ranges, southern Sierra Nevada Eastern Boundary, and Desert regions in open, sandy, gravelly soil among shrubs at elevations of 300 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces purple or yellow-green flowers 4.5 to 9 millimeters long with delicate petals. Growing with weak, wavy stems 10 to 80 centimeters tall that branch distally and are generally glabrous, it develops distinctive foliage. Its basal leaves are oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, coarsely dentate to lobed, while cauline leaves are sessile, lanceolate to oblong, with bases that are lobed or clasping. The fruit is a slender, generally curved cylindric structure 2 to 6 centimeters long, bearing 24 to 48 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Common. Open, sandy, gravelly soil, generally among shrubs

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 300-2500 m

Bioregions: n TR, e PR, s SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial

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