Caulanthus lasiophyllus

California mustard

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

California mustard is a native annual found in California (excluding the Modoc Plateau) in desert flats, sandy banks, gravelly areas, shrublands, and disturbed sites at elevations below 1,400 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces white to creamy white or slightly pink flowers up to 6.5 millimeters long in elongated clusters. Growing with erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it is sparsely to densely covered in stiff hairs and can be simple or branched. Its basal leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, pinnately lobed or toothed, with smaller cauline leaves that are short-petioled. The plant produces elongated fruits 2 to 4.8 centimeters long, containing 14 to 60 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Common. Desert flats, sandy banks, gravelly or rocky areas, talus slopes, shrubland, grassy fields, disturbed sites

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1400 m

Bioregions: CA (exc MP)

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

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