Parietaria hespera

Pelitory

Family: Urticaceae · Type: annual · Native

Pelitory is a California native annual herb found in various habitats across the state at low elevations. Flowering inconspicuously throughout spring and summer, this plant produces tiny green flowers nestled within its foliage. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 10 to 55 centimeters tall, it forms matted or spreading clusters. Its leaves vary from round on young stems to ovate or lanceolate on older plants, measuring 5 to 20 millimeters long with base edges ranging from truncate to wedge-shaped. The fruit is a small tan to brown ovate seed, barely 1 millimeter long and hidden between delicate calyx lobes.

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tulare, Ventura, Imperial, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Inyo, Stanislaus, Orange

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