Garrya congdonii

Chaparral silktassel

Family: Garryaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Chaparral silktassel is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, the northern Sierra Nevada, northern central Sierra Nevada, and San Francisco Bay Area in chaparral habitats at elevations of 180 to 750 meters. Flowering from February to April, this plant produces flowers in distinctive silky, pendulous clusters. Growing to less than 3 meters tall with dense, wavy branches, it forms a compact shrub with intricate branching. Its leaves are ovate to obovate-elliptic, 15 to 70 millimeters long, with flat to wavy margins and dense, fine, appressed hairs on the lower leaf surface. The fruit is covered in dense, soft hairs, giving the plant its characteristic silky appearance.

Habitat: Chaparral

Bloom period: Feb-Apr

Elevation: 180-750 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, n&ampc SNF, SnFrB.

California counties: Mariposa, Tehama, Napa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Stanislaus, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Monterey, Marin, Sonoma, San Benito, Santa Clara, Shasta, Yolo

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