Cordylanthus pilosus

Hairy bird's beak

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: annual · Native

Hairy bird's beak is a California native annual herb found in grasslands and open woodlands, typically growing at moderate elevations. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces white flowers with yellow-green tips and subtle maroon markings, emerging in loose clusters of one to three blossoms. Growing with erect stems 20 to 120 centimeters tall, the plant appears gray-green and often tinged with purple, covered in dense soft hairs that give it a distinctively fuzzy texture. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, measuring 10 to 40 millimeters long, with outer bracts that can reach 15 to 20 millimeters and sometimes have three-lobed tips. The seeds are small, dark brown, and finely textured with wavy striations.

California counties: Orange, Santa Clara, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, Yolo, Colusa, Tehama, Sonoma, Sutter, Contra Costa, Mendocino, San Joaquin, Plumas, Lake, Mariposa, Trinity, San Mateo, Tuolumne

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