Montia fontana

Water chickweed, blinks, Blinks

Family: Montiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Water chickweed is a California native annual found in California Floristic Province and Great Basin regions in ponds, streams, vernal pools, and seeps at elevations below 3,200 meters. Flowering from February to July, this plant produces small white flowers less than 2 millimeters long. Growing prostrate to erect with stems 1 to 30 centimeters tall, the plant often forms dense tufted or matted clusters that root at lower nodes. Its opposite leaves are linear to widely oblanceolate, 3 to 20 millimeters long with tapered bases and acute to obtuse tips. The tiny seeds feature distinctive acute tubercles, giving the plant a unique textural quality.

Habitat: Common. Ponds, streams, vernal pools, seeps

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: < 3200 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB

California counties: San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Butte, Modoc, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Madera, Marin, Monterey, Placer, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, El Dorado, Fresno, Alameda, Amador, Lassen, Napa, Plumas, San Benito, San Francisco, Trinity, Yuba, Calaveras, Mariposa, Mendocino, Nevada, Tuolumne, Glenn, San Joaquin, Merced, Del Norte, Mono, Alpine, Solano, Sierra, Colusa, Ventura, Yolo

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