Eryngium alismifolium

Alisma-leaved button-celery, Alisma-Leaved Button-Celery

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alisma-leaved button-celery is a California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada at Donner Lake, the Modoc Plateau, and nearby regions in vernal pools, wet areas, and dry lakebeds at elevations of 785 to 2,020 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces white flowers in small spherical heads 5 to 12 millimeters wide, arranged in compact clusters. Growing 0.5 to 3 decimeters tall with decumbent to erect stems that have downward-arching branches, it forms a distinctive rosette with branching within the base. Its basal leaves are larger than the stem branches, with blades 6 to 15 centimeters long, lanceolate to narrowly obovate and sharply serrate or irregularly pinnately lobed. The fruit is small, about 2 to 2.5 millimeters long, with dense lanceolate scales covering its surface.

Habitat: Vernal pools, wet areas, dry lakebeds

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 785-2020 m

Bioregions: CaRH, n SNH (Donner Lake), MP (exc Wrn)

California counties: Plumas, Nevada, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Sierra, Tuolumne

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