Engellaria obtusa
Obtuse starwort, rocky mountain starwort, Rocky Mountain Starwort
Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Conservation status: CNPS 4.3
Obtuse starwort is a California native perennial herb found in northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, central Sierra Nevada Forest, northern and central Sierra Nevada High Country, and Modoc Plateau in moist woodland areas and shaded creek edges at elevations of 1,600 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this plant produces delicate white flowers in small axillary clusters with ascending pedicels. Growing prostrate with white rhizomes and generally glabrous stems 4 to 20 centimeters long, it forms low-spreading clusters in moist habitats. Its leaves are short-petioled, approximately ovate, 5 to 12 millimeters long, with acute margins that are ciliate near the base and have a single prominent vein. The fruit is a light green spherical capsule 2 to 3.5 millimeters long with six ascending to recurved valves.
Habitat: Moist areas in woodland, shaded edges of creeks
Bloom period: Late spring-summer
Elevation: 1600-2000 m
Bioregions: NCoR, CaR, c SNF, n&c SNH, MP
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.