Clarkia australis

Small's southern clarkia

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Small's southern clarkia is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native annual found in central Sierra Nevada Foothills and northern and central Sierra Nevada at elevations of 800 to 1,500 meters in yellow-pine forest. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces lavender-purple to red-purple flowers with distinctive mottled or spotted petals 8 to 15 millimeters long in a delicate rotate shape. Growing with erect stems less than one meter tall and covered in fine soft hairs, it has lance-linear leaves with petioles 1 to 3 centimeters long. Its leaves measure 2 to 5 centimeters in length, with distinctive blue-gray pollen and stamens subtended by ciliate scales. The tiny seeds are 1 to 1.5 millimeters long, with flowers featuring petals that are approximately 1.9 to 3 times longer than their width.

Habitat: Yellow-pine forest

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 800-1500 m

Bioregions: c SNF, n&ampc SNH.

California counties: Tuolumne, Mariposa, Calaveras, Madera

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