Hesperochiron pumilus

Dwarf hesperochiron

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Dwarf hesperochiron is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, western Transverse Ranges, Great Basin, and northern Death Valley regions in wet meadows and slopes at elevations of 400 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to bluish-purple, pinkish-white, or lavender flowers with yellow throats, broadly bell-shaped and 5 to 15 millimeters long. Growing as a small, compact plant 2 to 10 centimeters tall with a diameter of 10 or more centimeters, it has a simple or branched caudex sometimes forming rhizomes. Its leaves are generally 2 to 10 in number, short-glandular hairy, with blades 1 to 8 centimeters long and 0.5 to 3 centimeters wide, ranging from linear-oblong to oblanceolate in shape. The fruit is 5 to 9 millimeters long, with individual seeds measuring 1 to 1.5 millimeters.

Habitat: Wet meadows, slopes, flats

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 400-3000 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, CaRH, SNH, Teh, WTR, GB (exc W&ampI), n DMoj (Death Valley)

California counties: Modoc, Plumas, Tehama, Trinity, Lassen, Fresno, Siskiyou, Madera, Mariposa, Inyo, Tulare, Calaveras, Lake, Nevada, El Dorado, Placer, Tuolumne, Shasta, Alpine, Mono

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