Pickeringia montana

Chaparral pea

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Chaparral pea is a California native shrub found in central and southern California mountain ranges in chaparral and woodland habitats. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces deep purple flowers 1.5 to 1.8 centimeters long in distinctive racemes that appear before the leaves on new growth. Growing with intricately branched stems 1 to 3 meters tall, it develops terminal or axillary thorns that give the plant a rugged appearance. Its evergreen leaves are simple or palmately compound with 2 to 3 elliptic or ovate leaflets each 1 to 2 centimeters long. The fruit is a distinctive dehiscent pod 3 to 6 centimeters long with a often wavy margin, containing 1 to 8 seeds.

California counties: San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Napa, San Bernardino, Riverside, Marin, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Lake, Nevada, El Dorado, San Mateo, Solano, Contra Costa, Butte, Yuba, Mendocino, Sonoma, Ventura, Santa Clara, Colusa

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