Caulanthus heterophyllus

San diego wild cabbage

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

San diego wild cabbage is a California native annual herb found in eastern Santa Lucia Mountains, southern California, and the southern Peninsular Ranges in dry, open scrub and chaparral habitats at elevations below 1,400 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces purple or creamy white flowers 6 to 15 millimeters long with darker purple veins. Growing with erect, bristly stems 25 to 120 centimeters tall that are generally branched toward the top, it develops distinctive foliage with basal leaves 1 to 10 centimeters long, ranging from linear-oblanceolate to linear-oblong and coarsely dentate or pinnately lobed. Its cauline leaves are sessile, lance-linear, with bases that are lobed or clasping, and may be entire or dentate. The plant produces elongated fruits 4.5 to 10 centimeters long, which are reflexed and hold 56 to 82 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Dry, open scrub, chaparral, generally after fire, disturbance

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1400 m

Bioregions: e SCoRO (La Panza Range), SCo and s PR (common in both), ChI and TR (uncommon in both)

California counties: San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Tulare

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