Plagiobothrys arizonicus
Arizona popcornflower
Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native
Arizona popcornflower is a California native annual herb found in eastern northern Coast Ranges, southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, San Joaquin Valley, eastern San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, southwestern California, White and Inyo Mountains, and desert regions at elevations below 2,100 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces small white flowers with pale yellow appendages approximately 2 to 2.5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with ascending to erect stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it develops reddish stems with rough, sharp, spreading hairs. Its basal leaves form a rosette up to 5 centimeters long, with cauline leaves alternating along the stem and featuring dark red midveins and margins. The fruit consists of two nutlets about 2 millimeters long with wide-ovate shapes and distinctive ridged surfaces.
Habitat: Common. Dry, coarse soils in deserts, scrub, woodland
Bloom period: Feb-May
Elevation: < 2100 m
Bioregions: e NCoRI, s SN, Teh, SnJV, e SnFrB, SCoRI, SW, W&I, D
California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Kings, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Fresno, Ventura, Orange, Mono, Mariposa, Imperial, Merced, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Santa Barbara, Tehama
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.