Physaria occidentalis subsp. occidentalis

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western bladderpod is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, and Modoc Plateau in gravelly soils, talus, ridges, and volcanic areas at elevations of 600 to 3,350 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces bright yellow flowers with spoon-shaped petals 7 to 9 millimeters long. Growing with prostrate to erect stems 3 to 15 centimeters tall, it is densely hairy throughout. Its basal leaves are round to obovate, 1 to 8 centimeters long with wavy or entire margins, while stem leaves are smaller, oblanceolate, and sessile. The fruit is an ellipsoid pod 6 to 9 millimeters long, densely hairy on the outside and compressed parallel to its septum.

Habitat: Gravelly soils, talus, ridges, barren hillsides, volcanic rocks, decomposed limestone, schist

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 600-3350 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, n SNH, MP

California counties: Siskiyou, Trinity, Mendocino

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