Eryngium aristulatum

California eryngo

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California eryngo is a California native perennial found in coastal and central western California regions in grasslands, coastal prairies, and serpentine areas at elevations from sea level to 500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white flowers in small spherical heads 5 to 12 millimeters wide, clustered in delicate cymes. Growing with slender to stout stems 10 to 90 centimeters tall that branch just above the basal rosette, it has a decumbent to erect growth habit. Its basal leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3 to 10 centimeters long with coarsely sharp-serrate edges and irregular lobes, mounted on petioles 5 to 27 centimeters long. The fruit is a small, narrowly elliptic structure 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long, covered in dense, unequal lanceolate scales.

California counties: Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Riverside, San Diego, Yolo, Solano, Lake, Santa Clara, Colusa, Mendocino, Napa, Plumas, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, Nevada, Humboldt, Kern, Monterey

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