Claytonia rubra

Red stemmed spring beauty

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Red stemmed spring beauty is a California native perennial found in montane and subalpine regions at elevations of 1,500 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from March to May, this delicate plant produces white to pink-white flowers 2 to 3.5 millimeters long in small clusters of 3 to 30 blooms. Growing with slender stems 1 to 15 centimeters tall, it forms low-growing clusters with distinctive reddish stems. Its basal leaves are 1 to 8 centimeters long, with elliptic to broadly triangular blades less than 2 centimeters wide, featuring truncate to wedge-shaped bases and generally obtuse tips. The plant produces tiny elliptic seeds 1 to 2 millimeters long that are shiny and smooth.

California counties: San Bernardino, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Butte, Calaveras, Fresno, Humboldt, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, San Diego, Riverside, Tuolumne, Kern, Placer, Glenn, Shasta, Lake, Lassen, Nevada, Sutter, Alpine, Monterey

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