Lewisia pygmaea

Dwarf lewisia, Dwarf Lewisia

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Dwarf lewisia is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Transverse Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in rocky alpine and subalpine habitats at elevations of 1,700 to 4,020 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces delicate white, pink, or magenta flowers with striped petals, each blossom 4 to 10 millimeters long. Growing with multiple slender stems 1 to 5 centimeters tall, it forms dense rosettes of fleshy, thread-like leaves. Its leaves are 2 to 9 centimeters long, with a tapered base and blunt tips, arranged in tight clusters close to the ground. The plant produces small fruits 4 to 5 millimeters long, containing 15 to 24 tiny seeds.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, wet granite sand, gravel, moist meadows, along streams

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1700-4020 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, WTR, SnBr, Wrn, SNE

California counties: Inyo, Mono, Alpine, Fresno, San Bernardino, Tulare, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Modoc, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Siskiyou, Madera, Lassen, Humboldt, Ventura, Sierra

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