Gypsophila vaccaria

Cow-herb

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Cow-herb is a naturalized annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, California Ranges, central Sierra Nevada Foothills, northern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, Sacramento Valley, Central Western California, southern California, Peninsular Ranges, and Great Basin in disturbed areas at elevations below 2,800 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces pink to reddish flowers 15 to 25 millimeters long with oblanceolate to obovate petals. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with a glaucous, glabrous appearance and a deep taproot, it forms an upright annual with a flat-topped, open flowering structure. Its leaves are lanceolate to ovate, 8 to 30 millimeters wide, with rounded to heart-shaped bases that may be petioled or sessile. The flower's distinctive calyx is cylindric to urn-shaped, 7.5 to 17 millimeters long, with five slightly winged angles and triangular teeth.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 2800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, c SNF, n SNH, Teh, ScV, CW, SCo, PR, GB

California counties: San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern, Lake, Modoc, Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Monterey, Plumas, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tulare, Tuolumne, Merced, Lassen, Sutter, Humboldt, Mono, Colusa, Shasta, Butte

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