Clarkia affinis

Chaparral clarkia

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Chaparral clarkia is a California native annual found in the northern Coast Ranges, central Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, and western Transverse Ranges in woodland and chaparral openings at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces pale pink to dark wine-red flowers with purple flecks, 5 to 15 millimeters long in a bowl-shaped arrangement. Growing with erect stems up to 80 centimeters tall and covered in fine soft hairs, it has a delicate upright form. Its leaves are narrow and linear to lance-shaped, 1.5 to 7 centimeters long with very short or absent petioles. The fruit develops as a cylindric pod 1.5 to 3 centimeters long with a short 3 to 7 millimeter beak.

Habitat: Openings in woodland, chaparral

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, c SNF, SnFrB, SCoR, WTR.

California counties: San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Modoc, Fresno, Contra Costa, Monterey, Solano, Lake, Kern, Stanislaus, El Dorado, Colusa, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Placer, Santa Barbara, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Ventura, Yolo, Merced, Tehama, Napa, Glenn, Trinity, Shasta, Butte, Sacramento, Marin, Tuolumne, Nevada

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