Diplacus douglasii

Purple mouse ears

Family: Phrymaceae · Type: annual · Native

Purple mouse ears is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range foothills, Sierra Nevada foothills, central western California, and Warner Mountains in bare clay, serpentine, or granitic soils along upper banks of small creeks at elevations of 45 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from February to April, this plant produces magenta flowers with a distinctive throat boldly striped in gold and purple, with upper lobes 4 to 5 millimeters long. Growing with tiny stems 0.3 to 4 centimeters tall and slightly hairy, it has a delicate, low-growing form. Its leaves are ovate to obovate, 5 to 28 millimeters long with a shiny green underside. The fruit is a small, hard, asymmetric-ovoid structure 2.5 to 6.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Bare clay, serpentine or granitic soils; generally along upper banks of small creeks

Bloom period: Feb-Apr

Elevation: 45-1200 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SNF, CW, Wrn

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