Epilobium nivium

Snow mountain willowherb

Family: Onagraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Snow mountain willowherb is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native shrub found in southern North Coast Ranges in dry talus and shaly slopes at elevations of 1,500 to 2,400 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces rose-purple flowers 6 to 10 millimeters long with delicate petals. Growing as a low subshrub 10 to 25 centimeters tall with multiple stems emerging from a woody base, it has a distinctively gray strigose appearance. Its leaves are lance-elliptic, 8 to 18 millimeters long, densely covered in spreading hairs with minimal or short petioles. The fruit is a glandular fusiform capsule 8 to 16 millimeters long, containing one to two seeds per chamber.

Habitat: dry talus, shaly slopes

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1500-2400 m

Bioregions: s NCoRH.

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