Plagiobothrys distantiflorus

Madera popcornflower, Madera Popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Madera popcornflower is a California native annual found in northern and central Sierra Nevada Foothill regions in moist grasslands, open woodlands, seeps, and springs at elevations of 50 to 1,040 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces delicate white flowers with small limbs approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with slender, prostrate to decumbent stems 10 to 30 centimeters long that are strigose (covered in straight, appressed hairs), it develops thin branching stems. Its cauline leaves are small, measuring 0.5 to 2.5 centimeters in length, distributed along the stem with bracts present throughout. The fruit consists of distinctive nutlets about 1 millimeter long, with narrow elongate-ovate shape and crowded cross-ribs that are wrinkled and occasionally bristled.

Habitat: Uncommon. Moist places in grassland, open woodland, seeps, springs

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 50-1040 m

Bioregions: n SNF (Placer Co.), c SNF.

California counties: Stanislaus, Tulare, Colusa, Fresno, Placer, Tuolumne, Madera, Mariposa, Calaveras, Merced

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