Nemophila menziesii

Baby blue-eyes

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Baby blue-eyes is a California native annual found throughout the state's coastal ranges, central valley, and Sierra Nevada foothills in grassy meadows, open woodlands, and wildflower fields at elevations of 50 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from February to May, this delicate plant produces bright blue flowers with white centers, 5 to 20 millimeters wide, often marked with distinctive black dots. Growing with slender stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms loose, spreading clusters in open landscapes. Its opposite leaves are divided into 5 to 13 gentle lobes, each 1 to 5 centimeters long, with a soft, linear to ovate shape. Small brown to black seeds develop in fruits 5 to 15 millimeters wide, completing the plant's annual lifecycle.

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

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