Piperia transversa

Flat spurred piperia, Flat Spurred Piperia

Family: Orchidaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Flat spurred piperia is a California native perennial found in northwestern, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central western, Transverse Range, and Peninsular Range regions in dry sites, scrub, oak woodland, and mixed-evergreen or conifer forest at elevations below 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to pale yellow flowers with green midveins, featuring a distinctive clove-like fragrance and spreading lateral petals. Growing 12 to 57 centimeters tall with an erect flowering stem, it develops a relatively dense inflorescence 7 to 26 centimeters long. Its basal leaves are 6 to 19 centimeters long and 10 to 45 millimeters wide, with an upper sepal pointed forward and a white lip 2.2 to 5.3 millimeters long. The plant's spur is 6 to 12 millimeters long, positioned nearly perpendicular to the inflorescence axis.

Habitat: Generally dry sites, scrub, oak woodland, mixed-evergreen or conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 2600 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, CW, TR, PR

California counties: San Bernardino, San Diego, Mariposa, Fresno, Lake, San Mateo, Trinity, Mendocino, Santa Cruz, Marin, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Humboldt, Plumas, Riverside, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Monterey, Tulare, Madera, Placer, El Dorado, Nevada, Sonoma, Butte, Contra Costa, Tehama, Yuba, Shasta, San Luis Obispo, Napa, Sierra, Del Norte, Siskiyou, Amador, Alameda

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