Hackelia floribunda

Many-flowered stickseed

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Many-flowered stickseed is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin mountain ranges in meadows, streambanks, and occasionally open forest slopes at elevations of 1,370 to 3,050 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces small blue flowers in narrow clusters with delicate, slightly spreading petals. Growing with slender stems 40 to 120 centimeters tall, it develops spreading, somewhat coarse hairs along its mid-stem sections. Its lower stem leaves are oblanceolate to narrow-elliptic, measuring 5 to 24 centimeters long and 0.5 to 3.5 centimeters wide, often withering by flowering time. The fruit consists of small nutlets with occasional marginal prickles, giving the plant its distinctive "stickseed" character.

Habitat: Uncommon. Meadows, streambanks, other vernally wet areas, occasionally open slopes, forests

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1370-3050 m

Bioregions: SNH, GB

California counties: Mono, Inyo, Alpine, Amador, Tulare, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Fresno, Sierra

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