Claytonia lanceolata

Western spring beauty, Western Spring Beauty

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western spring beauty is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, Modoc Plateau, and Panamint Range in sheltered, moist openings of mixed conifer or subalpine forest at elevations of 600 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to pale pink flowers with faint to strong pink veins, 5 to 12 millimeters long with slightly notched tips. Growing with erect stems 4.5 to 13.5 centimeters tall, it emerges from a small spherical brown tuberous root. Its cauline leaves are lance-linear to lance-ovate, 17 to 43 millimeters long and 3 to 7 millimeters wide, generally light to dark green. The fruit is 3.5 to 4.5 millimeters long, containing a single shiny, round seed.

Habitat: Sheltered, moist openings of mixed conifer or subalpine forest, generally on north-facing, stony slopes of alkali-rich rocks (e.g. granite, rhyolite) and soils from these parent materials with some organic content

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 600-2800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, n&ampc SNH, SnGb, SnBr, MP, DMtns (Panamint Range)

California counties: Lassen, Madera, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Tulare, Alpine, Inyo, Placer, Mariposa, Nevada, Stanislaus, Butte, Humboldt, Trinity, Tuolumne, San Bernardino, San Benito, Del Norte

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