Hoita orbicularis

Creeping leather root

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Creeping leather root is a California native perennial found in the California Floristic Province (except the Great Valley) in meadows, streamsides, and moist hillsides at elevations below 2,250 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces brown-glandular flowers 12 to 23 millimeters long with distinctive obovate to round leaflets. Growing with prostrate to decumbent stems 10 to 60 centimeters long, it spreads across the ground with a distinctive creeping habit. Its leaves feature 3 to 11 centimeter leaflets that are obovate to round, covered in brown glandular hairs on both surfaces. The fruit is 6 to 9 millimeters long with obvious veins, bearing seeds 4 to 5 millimeters in size.

Habitat: Meadows, streamsides, moist hillsides

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 2250 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc GV)

California counties: Butte, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Sonoma, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Amador, Marin, Calaveras, Monterey, Nevada, Yuba, Mariposa, Napa, El Dorado, Contra Costa, Madera, Fresno, Shasta, Tuolumne, Santa Clara, Alameda, Orange, Placer

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