Lysimachia arvensis

Scarlet pimpernel, Scarlet Pimpernel

Family: Myrsinaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Scarlet pimpernel is a naturalized annual herb found in the California Floristic Province and desert regions, commonly occurring in disturbed places and ocean beaches at elevations generally below 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces delicate salmon, red, blue, or blue-white flowers about 4 to 7 millimeters wide, typically solitary in leaf axils. Growing with freely branched stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall that ascend or grow erect, it spreads easily in open ground. Its opposite or whorled leaves are small, ranging 5 to 20 millimeters long, with ovate to elliptic shapes that become more lance-shaped toward the stem tips. The fruit is a circumscissile capsule that opens around its circumference, allowing seed dispersal.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed places, ocean beaches

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: generally < 1000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, D

California counties: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Monterey, Alameda, Orange, San Diego

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