Floerkea proserpinacoides

False mermaidweed

Family: Limnanthaceae · Type: annual · Native

False mermaidweed is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Modoc Plateau in moist open places within conifer forest or sagebrush scrub at elevations of 1,500 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from May to July, this delicate plant produces small white spoon-shaped petals in tiny clusters. Growing with decumbent to erect stems less than 20 centimeters tall, it has a fleshy and glabrous appearance. Its leaves are intricately divided into 3 to 5 oblong leaflets, each up to 2 centimeters long, creating a delicate, lacy structure. The fruit consists of 2 to 3 wrinkled, nearly spherical mericarps about 3 millimeters long.

Habitat: Moist open places in conifer forest or sagebrush scrub

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1500-3200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, MP

California counties: Mono, Modoc, Siskiyou, Tulare, Tehama, Plumas, Alpine, Madera, Shasta, Mendocino, Sierra, Butte, Glenn, Lassen, Placer, Tuolumne, Nevada, Humboldt, Trinity

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