Lewisia rediviva

Bitter root

Family: Montiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bitter root is a California native perennial found in rocky, often alpine habitats at elevations of 800 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces stunning white to pink and lavender flowers 12 to 35 millimeters long with delicate obovate-oblong petals, often featuring a white base and obtuse-notched tips. Growing with multiple slender stems 2 to 6 centimeters tall that emerge from a dense basal rosette, it develops distinctive flowering stems that disjoint near the middle and leave behind a ring of scarious, awl-like bracts. Its leaves form a compact rosette of thick, linear segments 0.5 to 5 centimeters long, tapered at the base with blunt tips. Each plant produces between 6 to 25 small seeds, highlighting its remarkable adaptation to harsh, rocky environments.

California counties: Kern, Santa Clara, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Mono, Inyo, Butte, Placer, Contra Costa, Lake, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Siskiyou, Ventura, Calaveras, Amador, Marin, Mariposa, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Tulare, Tuolumne, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Tehama, Lassen, Glenn, San Benito, Sutter, Colusa, Stanislaus, Fresno, Shasta, Trinity, Plumas, El Dorado, Nevada

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