Caulanthus glaucus
Glaucous caulanthus
Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Glaucous caulanthus is a California native perennial found in western Inyo County and northern Desert Mountains, including the Grapevine and Last Chance Ranges, on open rocky slopes and sagebrush scrub at elevations of 1,400 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces purple to yellow-green flowers 11 to 17.5 millimeters long with distinctive erect sepals. Growing with erect or ascending glaucous stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall, it develops from a woody base and can be simple or branched toward the top. Its leaves range from widely obovate basal blades 2 to 10 centimeters long to narrow linear cauline leaves, with some leaves showing coarse dentate edges. The plant produces elongated fruits 4.5 to 15.5 centimeters long that are generally curved and contain 180 to 210 small oblong seeds.
Habitat: Uncommon. Open, rocky slopes and outcrops, generally in crevices, sagebrush scrub
Bloom period: Apr-Jun
Elevation: 1400-2500 m
Bioregions: W&I, n DMtns (Grapevine Mtns, Last Chance Range)
California counties: Inyo, Mono
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.