Montia diffusa

Diffuse miner's lettuce

Family: Montiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Diffuse miner's lettuce is a California native annual found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada, and San Francisco Bay Area regions in disturbed or burned conifer forest and mixed woodland at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from May to July, this delicate plant produces pink or white flowers in small clusters of 3 to 10 blossoms. Growing with erect and diffuse-branched stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, it spreads in a loose, open pattern. Its leaves vary from basal to cauline, with lanceolate to deltate blades 8 to 50 millimeters long, featuring wedge-shaped to heart-shaped bases and acute to obtuse tips. Each tiny flower has white or pink petals 3 to 4.5 millimeters long, accompanied by widely obovate sepals.

Habitat: Often disturbed or burned conifer forest, mixed woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NW, n SN, SnFrB

California counties: Humboldt, Butte, Del Norte, Marin, Mendocino, Siskiyou, Shasta, Lake

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