Navarretia squarrosa

Skunkweed, Skunkweed

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Skunkweed is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the northern Sierra Nevada foothills in Sacramento, Amador, and Calaveras counties, and central western California in open, wet, gravelly habitats at elevations below 1,100 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces dark to light blue, pink, or white flowers 9 to 12 millimeters long with distinctive 2-millimeter lobes. Growing with erect stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall, it has ascending branches covered in long, glandular hairs and a notable skunk-like odor. Its lower leaves are 1 to 2-pinnately lobed with linear segments, while upper leaves have shorter axes with narrowly lanceolate lobes that are often forked and prickled on the back. The plant's outer bracts are leaf-like, with a middle lobe that is lanceolate and wider than the lateral lobes.

Habitat: Common. Open, wet, gravelly flats, slopes

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 1100 m

Bioregions: NW, n SNF (Sacramento, Amador, Calaveras cos.), CW

California counties: Santa Cruz, Amador, El Dorado, San Francisco, Mendocino, Humboldt, Sonoma, Alameda, San Mateo, Butte, Monterey, Marin, Santa Clara, Lake, San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Napa, Del Norte, Glenn, Calaveras, Sacramento, San Benito, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yuba

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