Hydrophyllum alpestre

Alpine breeches, alpine waterleaf

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alpine breeches is a native perennial found in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains, Modoc Plateau, and Sierra Nevada Eastern regions in moist slopes, meadows, and flats at elevations of 800 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white, purple, or blue-purple flowers with lavender markings in small spherical clusters near the ground surface. Growing 10 to 30 centimeters tall with a short underground rhizome, it emerges with reduced stems and leaves directly from the rhizome. Its first leaves are 2 to 5 centimeters long with pinnately lobed blades featuring 5 to 7 entire or slightly toothed lobes, while later leaves become larger and more complex. The delicate flowers have short recurved peduncles and bell-shaped corollas, producing 1 to 3 light or dark brown seeds approximately 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter.

Habitat: Moist slopes, meadows, flats

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: [700]800-2600[3000] m

Bioregions: CaRH, n SNH, MP, SNE exc W&ampI

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