Philadelphus lewisii

Wild mock orange, Wild Mock Orange

Family: Hydrangeaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Wild mock orange is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, southern Sierra Nevada, Sutter Buttes, southern California mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in slopes and canyons of conifer and hardwood forests and montane chaparral at elevations of 30 to 2,440 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces white flowers with delicate, obovate petals 8 to 12 millimeters long. Growing to a medium height with multiple upright or spreading branches, it forms a rounded, dense shrub structure. Its leaves are ovate with smooth or slightly toothed edges, measuring 20 to 40 millimeters wide, carried on short 3 to 8 millimeter petioles. The shrub produces clusters of fragrant white blossoms that resemble small orange flowers, giving rise to its common name.

Habitat: Slopes, canyons in conifer and hardwood forest, montane chaparral

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 30-2440 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n&ampc SN, s SNH, ScV (Sutter Buttes), SnGb, PR (Santa Ana Mtns)

California counties: Lake, Placer, Trinity, Siskiyou, Amador, Tuolumne, Shasta, Mendocino, Sierra, Butte, Plumas, Humboldt, Del Norte, Mariposa, El Dorado, Kern, Tulare, Yuba, Santa Barbara, Nevada, Calaveras, Fresno, San Mateo, Orange, Los Angeles, Marin, Sonoma, Tehama, Glenn, Sacramento, Sutter, Stanislaus

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