Marah watsonii

Taw man-root, Taw Man-Root

Family: Cucurbitaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Taw man-root is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, southern Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, and Sacramento Valley in shrubby areas and forest edges at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces small white flowers in deeply cup-shaped corollas less than 8 millimeters wide. Growing with glaucous herbage and flexible stems, it develops a distinctive vine-like habit across shrubby landscapes. Its leaves spread broadly across the ground, with a pale bluish-green cast that helps it blend into woodland and chaparral environments. The fruit is nearly spherical, often striped in dark green and measuring 2 to 3.5 centimeters, typically bearing flexible prickles that can be sparse or dense.

Habitat: shrubby areas, forest edges

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, s CaR, n SN, ScV.

California counties: Colusa, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Placer, Solano, Yolo, Napa, El Dorado, Nevada, Shasta, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Yuba, Lake, Glenn, Mariposa

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