Epilobium obcordatum

Heart willowweed

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Heart willowweed is a California native perennial found in the high Sierra Nevada, Modoc Plateau, and high Cascade Range Mountains on rocky ridges and dry talus at elevations of 1,700 to 4,000 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces pink to rose-purple flowers 11 to 24 millimeters long with distinctive rounded petals. Growing as a compact clump less than 15 centimeters tall with many wiry basal shoots, it emerges from a woody caudex and appears somewhat glaucous and nearly hairless. Its leaves are broadly lance-elliptic to nearly round, 6 to 20 millimeters long with rounded or obtuse tips and minimal to no petiole. The fruit is a widely club-like capsule 20 to 45 millimeters long, densely covered with glandular hairs.

Habitat: Rocky ridges, dry talus

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1700-4000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH, MP

California counties: Alpine, Modoc, Nevada, Tulare, Fresno, Inyo, Tuolumne, Mono, Madera, Butte, Mariposa, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Placer, Plumas, Tehama, Shasta, Sierra, El Dorado

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