Nuttallanthus texanus

Blue toadflax

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Blue toadflax is a California native annual found in northwestern California, Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, central western California, southwestern deserts, and desert mountains in sandy or gravelly habitats at elevations below 1,800 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces violet to blue flowers with white-ridged throats, 10 to 24 millimeters long including a slender 6 to 11 millimeter spur. Growing with slender stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall that have decumbent non-flowering shoots, it forms delicate branching structures. Its leaves are narrowly linear, 5 to 25 millimeters long and blunt-tipped, arranged along the stem. The fruit is approximately 3 millimeters long with small tubercled seeds.

Habitat: Sand or gravel

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCoRH), SNF, GV, CW, SW (exc SnBr, SnJt), DMtns (Granite Mtns, w San Bernardino Co.)

California counties: Los Angeles, Merced, Monterey, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Marin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Ventura, Alameda, Humboldt, Amador, Sutter, Orange, Contra Costa, Napa, Colusa, Lake, Tehama, Madera, San Joaquin, Tulare, Mendocino, Del Norte, Fresno, San Mateo, Mariposa, Solano

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