Caulanthus coulteri

Coulter's jewel flower

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Coulter's jewel flower is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada foothills, Tehachapi, southwestern San Joaquin Valley, southeastern San Francisco Bay Area, eastern Coast Ranges, and western Transverse Ranges in dry, exposed slopes, chaparral, woodland, scrub, and grassland at elevations of 80 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces white to purple flowers with dark purple veins, wavy-margined and 8 to 25 millimeters long. Growing with bristly stems 1 to 1.6 meters tall, it has simple and forked hairs that give the plant a rough texture. Its basal leaves are 1 to 17 centimeters long, narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, with coarse teeth or pinnate lobes, while cauline leaves are lanceolate and sessile with lobed or clasping bases. The fruits are spreading to reflexed, cylindric, and 3.5 to 15 centimeters long with reflexed pedicels.

Habitat: Dry, exposed slopes, chaparral, woodland, scrub, grassland

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 80-2100 m

Bioregions: s SNF, Teh, sw SnJV, se SnFrB, e SCoRO, SCoRI, nw WTR, sw edge DMoj (Kern Co.).

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, San Benito, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Ventura, Madera, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, San Diego, San Bernardino, Inyo

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