Chamerion angustifolium subsp. circumvagum

Fireweed, Fireweed

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Fireweed is a California native perennial found in northern coastal, Klamath, high cascade, Sierra Nevada, and eastern desert mountain regions in open places, gravel bars, and roadsides at elevations up to 3,300 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces deep pink to magenta flowers with distinctive blue-gray pollen. Growing in strongly colonial clusters up to three meters tall with erect stems that are nearly smooth or densely hairy toward the top. Its lanceolate leaves range from 1.5 to 20 centimeters long, with a strigose midrib on the underside. The plant produces elongated gray-hairy seed pods 4 to 10 centimeters in length, making it a characteristic pioneer species often appearing in areas recently cleared by fire.

Habitat: Common. Open places, gravel bars, roadsides, especially after fires

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: < 3300 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, NCoRO, CaRH, SNH, SnBr, W&ampI, ne DMtns

California counties: San Bernardino, Tulare, Mono, San Diego, Inyo, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, Glenn, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Placer, Sierra, Sonoma, Tuolumne, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Mendocino, Nevada, Plumas, Siskiyou, Trinity, Lassen, Shasta, Riverside, Tehama, Sacramento

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