Limnanthes douglasii

Common meadowfoam

Family: Limnanthaceae · Type: annual · Native

Common meadowfoam is a California native annual found in central California coastal and interior valley regions in grassland and vernal pool habitats at low elevations. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces white to yellow flowers with delicate petals that have purple to pink veins, creating a soft, multicolored appearance. Growing with erect or ascending stems 10 to 35 centimeters tall, the plant has a delicate, spreading form with glabrous herbage. Its leaves are compound, featuring 5 to 13 linear to lanceolate leaflets that are entire or occasionally toothed, giving the plant a fine, lacy texture. The flowers develop into smooth mericarps with distinctive petal bases that reflexed after blooming.

California counties: Humboldt, Trinity, Sonoma, Mendocino, Amador, Santa Cruz, Butte, San Diego, Tehama, Solano, Sacramento, Lake, Marin, San Benito, Alameda, Napa, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Tuolumne, Santa Clara, Mariposa, Shasta, San Luis Obispo, Lassen, Monterey, Tulare, Placer, El Dorado, Stanislaus, Madera, Merced, Santa Barbara, Glenn

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