Hydrophyllum occidentale

Western waterleaf, Western Waterleaf

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western waterleaf is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area in moist, shaded slopes, woodlands, meadows, streambanks, and chaparral, including serpentine soils at elevations of 375 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to lavender flowers with delicate bell-shaped corollas 7 to 11 millimeters long. Growing 10 to 60 centimeters tall with erect stems in flower and a short to long rhizome, it has a distinctive appearance with overlapping petiole bases. Its leaves are complex, with large basal leaves 10 to 30 centimeters long featuring 7 to 15 lobed leaflets that are oblong in shape and sparsely hairy. The plant produces small fruits approximately 4 millimeters in diameter, containing one to two light or dark brown seeds.

Habitat: Moist, shaded slopes, woodland, meadows, streambanks, chaparral, including serpentine soils

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: (70)375-3000 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, ScV, SnFrB

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Tuolumne, Plumas, Sierra, Trinity, Tehama, Shasta, Siskiyou, Lake, Mendocino, Mariposa, Napa, Alameda, Lassen, Mono, Alpine, Nevada, Santa Clara, El Dorado, Humboldt, Placer, Butte, Glenn, Contra Costa, Colusa, Calaveras, Madera, Del Norte, Inyo, San Benito

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