Orthocarpus luteus

Yellow owl's clover

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: annual · Native

Yellow owl's clover is a native annual found in the Great Basin and its adjacent edges in moist fields, sagebrush scrub, and mountain meadows at elevations of 1,300 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces golden-yellow flowers on dense inflorescences with distinctive green bracts and narrow lobes. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with slender stems that often become purple-tinged, it has a delicate, glandular-hairy appearance. Its leaves are narrow, ranging from 15 to 50 millimeters long, typically entire or with upper leaves having three deep lobes. The flowers feature a golden-yellow corolla with a distinctive beak 2 to 4 millimeters long, slightly hooked and projecting downward.

Habitat: Moist fields, sagebrush scrub, mountain meadows

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1300-3000 m

Bioregions: GB, adjacent edges

California counties: Mono, Kern, Fresno, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Modoc, Alpine, Lassen, Mariposa, Tuolumne

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