Collinsia callosa

Desert collinsia

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert collinsia is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, southern Coast Ranges, eastern Transverse Ranges, San Gabriel Mountains, Mojave Desert, and desert mountain ranges including Panamint and Argus in disturbed rocky slopes, open chaparral, sagebrush scrub, and pinyon or pine woodland at elevations of 1,000 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces lavender-blue flowers 7 to 9 millimeters long in open, conspicuously glandular inflorescences. Growing 4 to 25 centimeters tall with a stout and fleshy habit, it has erect stems with distinctively clasping middle and distal leaves. Its leaves are generally less than 3 centimeters long, oblong to ovate in shape, with obtuse tips and slightly rolled edges. The fruit is characterized by a calyx nearly equal in size to the seed, generally over 5 millimeters wide with blunt lobe tips.

Habitat: Disturbed rocky slopes, open chaparral, sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper and pine woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 1000-2300 m

Bioregions: s SN, Teh, s SCoRO, e WTR, SnGb, DMoj/SnGb, DMoj/SNE, DMtns (Panamint, Argus ranges).

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Tulare, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Inyo, Riverside

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