Cordylanthus tenuis

Slender bird's beak

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: annual · Native

Slender bird's beak is a California native annual herb found in grasslands and open woodland areas at elevations between 100 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces delicate white flowers with maroon blotches and yellow tips, clustered in loose groups of one to seven blossoms. Growing with wiry stems 20 to 120 centimeters tall that are grayish-green or tinged with maroon, it appears slender and relatively sparse. Its leaves are narrow and linear, measuring 10 to 60 millimeters long, with minimal hair or texture. The plant produces six to sixteen dark brown seeds that are slightly ovoid and finely textured with wavy striations.

California counties: Mendocino, Fresno, Tuolumne, Butte, Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Sierra, Sacramento, Colusa, Plumas, Mariposa

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