Chloropyron maritimum

Salt marsh bird's beak

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: annual · Native

Salt marsh bird's beak is a California native annual found in coastal salt marshes at low elevations near the Pacific Ocean. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white to cream flowers with pale to purplish-red lips, arranged in dense spikes 20 to 90 millimeters long. Growing with gray-green, often purple-tinged stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall that are frequently salt-encrusted and short-hairy, it has a delicate and distinctive coastal appearance. Its narrow lance-linear leaves measure 5 to 25 millimeters long and remain entire, blending subtly with the plant's maritime habitat. The small seeds are deeply netted and dark brown, reflecting the plant's specialized adaptation to saline environments.

California counties: San Diego, Inyo, Santa Clara, Marin, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Santa Barbara

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