Claytonia serpenticola

Serpentine spring beauty

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Serpentine spring beauty is a rare (CNPS 4.3) California native perennial found in mixed-conifer and subalpine forest openings on mafic substrates in xeric, stony north-facing slopes, typically at elevations of 500 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this delicate plant produces white to pinkish flowers with faint pink veins and yellow bases, each bloom 5.5 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with thin erect stems 3 to 7 centimeters tall and a spherical brown tuberous root, it develops 2 to 4 alternate or subopposite linear leaves that range from 10 to 34 millimeters long. Its leaves are light to dark green, narrow, and lance-linear to oblanceolate with acute tips, measuring 1 to 5 millimeters wide. The small seeds are approximately 2 millimeters long and either smooth or weakly tubercled.

Habitat: Openings of mixed-conifer and subalpine forest, on xeric, stony slopes (generally north-facing) of mafic substrates (e.g. gabbro, peridotite, serpentinite), sometimes mixed with sedimentary rocks (e.g. shale) and in substrate-derived soils

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

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