Epilobium lactiflorum
Milkflower willowherb
Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native
Milkflower willowherb is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and northern White and Inyo Mountains in damp meadows, streambanks, and talus slopes at elevations of 1,400 to 3,350 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces white flowers with delicate, nodding petals 4 to 8.8 millimeters long. Growing 15 to 50 centimeters tall with ascending stems that form clumped clusters, it spreads through short, leafy stolons. Its narrowly ovate to lanceolate leaves are 20 to 55 millimeters long, slightly toothed along the edges and minutely hairy with winged leaf stalks 3 to 12 millimeters long. The slender fruit capsules extend 50 to 100 millimeters, bearing scattered hairs and developing on pedicels 20 to 45 millimeters long.
Habitat: Damp meadows, streambanks, talus
Bloom period: Jun-Sep
Elevation: 1400-3350 m
Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, n W&I
California counties: Inyo, Fresno, Riverside, Sierra, Siskiyou, Butte, Mono, Tuolumne, Tulare, San Bernardino, Plumas, Shasta, Mariposa, El Dorado, Humboldt, Placer, Kings
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.