Epilobium anagallidifolium

Alpine willowherb

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alpine willowherb is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, Warner Mountains, and northern White and Inyo Mountains in moist alpine slopes, meadows, and streambanks at elevations of 1,500 to 4,500 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces delicate pink to rose-purple flowers small enough to nod gently on slender stems. Growing as a compact, low-growing herb less than 20 centimeters tall with short, leafy stolons and an ascending to erect form, it spreads in dense tufted clusters. Its leaves range from spoon-shaped basal leaves to elliptic distal leaves, varying from 8 to 25 millimeters long, with sparse strigose hairs and nearly entire margins. The plant forms short, leafy stolons and grows with a distinctive clustered, low-growing habit characteristic of high-elevation alpine environments.

Habitat: Moist alpine slopes, meadows, streambanks

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 1500-4500 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, SnBr, Wrn, n W&ampI

California counties: Mono, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, Inyo, Fresno, Tulare, El Dorado, Shasta, Tuolumne, Madera, Nevada, Modoc, Butte, Alpine, Trinity, Sierra, Mariposa, Lassen

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