Physaria kingii subsp. kingii

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

King's bladderpod is a California native perennial found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and desert mountains in dry rocky soils, limestone gravel, sagebrush hillsides, and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 1,700 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces pale yellow to white flowers with distinctive fruit tips. Growing with slender stems up to 30 centimeters tall, it forms compact clusters in harsh desert and mountain environments. Its leaves are small and arranged along the stem, providing minimal surface area to conserve moisture in arid conditions. The fruit features truncate or slightly notched tips with sparsely hairy valves, containing 4 to 8 seeds within its distinctive bladder-like pods.

Habitat: dry rocky soils, limestone gravel, sagebrush hillsides, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 1700-3800 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMtns

California counties: Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino

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