Claytonia sibirica

Candy flower

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Candy flower is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, and San Francisco Bay Area in shady moist woodlands, streambanks, and marshes at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from February to August, this delicate plant produces pale pink flowers 6 to 12 millimeters long in small clusters of 10 to 20 blossoms. Growing with spreading to erect stems 5 to 60 centimeters tall, it develops short rhizomes that can form offset rosettes. Its leaves range from basal oblanceolate blades 3 to 30 centimeters long to smaller cauline leaves 1 to 8 centimeters long, with some petioles featuring distinctive bulb-like bases. The plant produces small round to elliptic seeds 1.5 to 2 millimeters long with a shiny or dull surface.

Habitat: Generally shady moist woodland, streambanks, marshes

Bloom period: Feb-Aug

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SnFrB

California counties: Santa Cruz, Humboldt, Del Norte, Marin, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Trinity, Tulare, Butte, Santa Clara, Tehama, El Dorado, Shasta

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