Lychnis coronaria

Rose campion

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Rose campion is a naturalized perennial found in northern California bioregions including the Klamath Ranges, North Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada forests, and coastal areas at elevations of 100 to 1,220 meters in disturbed areas, open slopes, and redwood/Douglas-fir forests. Flowering during summer, this plant produces striking red-purple flowers with delicate obovate petals and small awl-like appendages. Growing to 15 to 45 centimeters tall with sparingly branched stems, it displays a distinctively dense silky-hairy texture covering its entire structure. Its leaves range from oblanceolate basal leaves 9 to 15 centimeters long to narrower elliptic cauline leaves 5 to 15 centimeters in length, creating a soft, silvery-green backdrop for its vibrant blooms. The plant produces small, nearly spherical seeds approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters in size with rounded, elongated tubercles.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, open slopes, redwood/Douglas-fir forests

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 100-1220 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRF (Butte Co.), CaRH (Plumas Co.), n SNF, n SNH (Butte Co.), c SNH, SnFrB, SCo, WTR

California counties: Alameda, Butte, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Shasta, El Dorado, Nevada, Mendocino, Plumas, Mariposa, Napa, Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Marin, San Mateo, Sacramento, Sonoma, Tuolumne

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