Modiola caroliniana

Modiola, Modiola

Family: Malvaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Modiola is a naturalized perennial herb found in California's Central Valley and Foothills in grasslands and disturbed areas at elevations generally below 400 meters. Flowering from March to November, this plant produces distinctive red-orange flowers 3 to 8 millimeters long with darker bases. Growing with prostrate to creeping stems 15 to 50 centimeters long that root near the base, it spreads across the ground with a sprawling habit. Its leaves are broadly rounded or triangular, 2 to 8 centimeters wide, with deeply toothed or lobed edges that are often further subdivided into smaller lobes. The distinctive fruit consists of 15 to 25 black, kidney-shaped segments with bristly tops that separate into two distinct chambers.

Habitat: Grassland, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Nov

Elevation: generally < 400 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

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