Frankenia salina

Alkali heath

Family: Frankeniaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Alkali heath is a California native shrub found in the Great Valley, Central Coast, Southern Coast, Channel Islands, Southeastern Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert regions in salt marshes and alkali flats at elevations below 750 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces white to pink or blue-purple flowers 6 to 14 millimeters long. Growing as a matted subshrub up to 3 meters in diameter with prostrate stems 10 to 60 centimeters long, it spreads in low, dense clusters. Its leathery leaves are small and narrow, measuring 4 to 15 millimeters long and 1 to 6 millimeters wide, with margins weakly rolled under. The fruit is 3 to 5 millimeters long, containing 1 to 20 small ellipsoid seeds.

Habitat: Salt marshes, alkali flats

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: < 750 m

Bioregions: GV, CCo, SCo, ChI, SNE, DMoj

California counties: Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Riverside, San Mateo, Alameda, Fresno, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Marin, Colusa, Monterey, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Orange, Solano, Stanislaus, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Inyo, San Diego, San Bernardino, Merced, Yolo, Sonoma, Kings, Sacramento, Glenn, Butte, San Francisco, Madera, Napa, San Benito, Mendocino, Sutter

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