Plagiobothrys bracteatus

Bracted popcornflower, Bracted Popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bracted popcornflower is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, northern San Joaquin Valley, central and southern coastal areas, San Pedro Martir Mountains, and western Mojave Desert in vernal pools, grasslands, coastal-sage scrub, and chaparral at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces small white flowers with pale yellow appendages in delicate clusters. Growing with ascending or occasionally sprawling stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall that are covered in stiff, bulbous-based hairs, it forms dense or sparse clusters. Its basal leaves are lanceolate with bulbous-based hairs, while lower stem leaves extend 3 to 10 centimeters long. The tiny nutlets are lance-shaped, about 1 to 1.8 millimeters long, with intricate surface ridges and narrow, tubercled margins.

Habitat: Common. Vernal pools, wet places in grassland, coastal-sage scrub, chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN (exc s SNH), ScV, n SnJV, CW, SCo, PR, MP, w DMoj

California counties: Placer, Lassen, Lake, San Joaquin, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Marin, Butte, Kern, Santa Clara, Monterey, Tehama, Napa, Alameda, Tulare, Colusa, Solano, Contra Costa, Glenn, Sonoma, Plumas, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, San Benito, Merced, Madera, Siskiyou, Yuba, Modoc, Amador, Mariposa, Sacramento, Trinity, Tuolumne, Humboldt, Shasta, Riverside, Stanislaus, El Dorado, Santa Cruz, Calaveras, Yolo, Del Norte, San Bernardino, Sutter

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