Extriplex californica

California orach, California Orach

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California orach is a California native perennial found in southern Northern Coast, Central Coast, Southern Coast, and Channel Islands bioregions in sandy soils, coastal dunes, sea bluffs, scrub, and salt marshes at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers with gray-scaly foliage. Growing up to 3 decimeters tall with a thick, somewhat fleshy taproot, it forms wide spreading plants up to 8 decimeters across. Its proximal leaves are opposite, with blades 5 to 24 millimeters long, entire in shape and distinctively gray-scaly with acute bases. The small black seeds are approximately 2 millimeters in size.

Habitat: Sandy soils, coastal dunes, sea bluffs, scrub, salt marshes

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: s NCo, CCo, SCo, ChI

California counties: Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Monterey

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