Montia dichotoma

Dwarf miner's lettuce

Family: Montiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Dwarf miner's lettuce is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, and North Coast Ranges in moist grassland depressions and open woodland at elevations of 1,000 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from April to June, this delicate plant produces small white flowers in axillary and terminal clusters with 4 to 16 blossoms. Growing as a tiny, tufted plant just 2 to 9 centimeters tall with erect stems, it forms compact clusters in its native habitat. Its thin, linear leaves measure 5 to 40 millimeters long and grow alternately along the stem. Many of its flowers are cleistogamous, meaning they self-pollinate while remaining closed, ensuring reproduction in challenging alpine environments.

Habitat: Moist depressions, grassland, open woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 1000-1600 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, MP

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