Collinsia tinctoria

Sticky chinese houses

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Sticky chinese houses is a California native annual found in northern coastal, central, and Sierra Nevada regions in rocky, dry mixed woodland and conifer forest at elevations of 100 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to pale lavender or yellow flowers with distinctive red-banded and red-dotted petals, creating complex and eye-catching blooms about 12 to 22 millimeters long. Growing 20 to 60 centimeters tall with robust, often strongly branched stems, it develops an interrupted flowering structure densely covered with glandular hairs that can stain surfaces. Its leaves are lance-shaped, varying from nearly entire to slightly serrate, with a notable mottled appearance and dense hair on the undersides. The plant's unique flower structure features a prominent pouch projecting backward 2 to 4 millimeters from the flower tube, with upper petals partially reflexed and adorned with distinctive red markings.

Habitat: Rocky, dry mixed woodland, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 100-2500 m

Bioregions: NCoRO, NCoRI, CaRF, SN (exc Teh), SnFrB.

California counties: Fresno, Tuolumne, Tulare, El Dorado, Nevada, Calaveras, Mariposa, Butte, Placer, Lake, Contra Costa, Tehama, Shasta, Kern, Madera, Sonoma, Plumas, Los Angeles, Sierra, Yuba, Sutter, San Francisco, Napa, Amador, Mendocino, Inyo, Humboldt, Monterey, Santa Barbara

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