Eryngium racemosum

Delta button-celery

Family: Apiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Delta button-celery is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada foothills in Calaveras County and northern San Joaquin Valley in seasonally flooded clay depressions at elevations of 3 to 30 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces white to faint-purple flowers in small spheric-ovoid heads 5 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with prostrate or decumbent slender stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall, it has branches emerging 1.5 to 3 centimeters above its basal rosette. Its leaves are distinctive, with lanceolate to oblong blades 3 to 5 centimeters long, featuring spiny margins or sharp serrations. The fruit is small, about 1.5 millimeters long, with dense, unequal lanceolate scales.

Habitat: Seasonally flooded clay depressions in floodplains

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 3-30 m

Bioregions: n SNF (Calaveras Co.), n SnJV.

California counties: Stanislaus, Merced, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Marin

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