Clarkia unguiculata

Elegant clarkia

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Elegant clarkia is a California native annual found in woodland habitats across the northern Coast Ranges, southern California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, southern Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, southern California, Channel Islands, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces lavender-pink to salmon or dark red-purple flowers with triangular or diamond-shaped petals 1 to 2.5 centimeters long, featuring distinctive outer red anthers contrasting with paler inner anthers. Growing up to 1 meter tall with erect, glaucous stems that are completely glabrous, it develops an elegant upright form. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, measuring 1 to 6 centimeters long with petioles up to 1 centimeter. The flower sepals range from green to dark red, with sparsely to densely distributed puberulent hairs and longer spreading hairs less than 3 millimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: NCoR, s CaRF, SN, ScV (Sutter Buttes), SnJV, s CCo, SnFrB, SCoR, SCo, ChI, TR, PR.

California counties: Los Angeles, Kern, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura, El Dorado, Monterey, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Tuolumne, Tulare, San Mateo, Butte, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Riverside, Mariposa, San Bernardino, San Benito, Napa, Madera, Lake, Yolo, Sutter, Solano, Placer, Colusa, Amador, Marin, Nevada, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Mendocino, Merced, Tehama, Yuba

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