Hackelia micrantha

Jessica's stickseed, meadow stickseed, Meadow Stickseed

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Jessica's stickseed is a native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and northern eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in meadows, streambanks, and open forest at elevations of 1,200 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces delicate blue flowers with open throats about 4 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Growing with multiple stems 30 to 110 centimeters tall emerging from a stout, woody base, it has stems with sparse to minimal hair coverage. Its basal leaves are narrow and elliptic, measuring 6 to 33 centimeters long and 0.7 to 3.7 centimeters wide, with a green appearance during flowering. The fruit consists of small nutlets 3 to 5 millimeters long with 4 to 10 abaxial prickles.

Habitat: Meadows, streambanks, shrubby slopes, open forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1200-3500 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, MP, n SNE (Sweetwater Mtns)

California counties: Mariposa, Mono, Modoc, Siskiyou, Fresno, Plumas, Trinity, Inyo, Alpine, El Dorado, Madera, Tulare, Tuolumne, Nevada, Lassen, Placer, Mendocino, Shasta, Glenn, Butte, Tehama, Colusa, Humboldt, Lake, Del Norte, Sierra, San Bernardino

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