Plagiobothrys infectivus

Dye popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Dye popcornflower is a California native annual found in northern Coast Ranges, western San Joaquin Valley, eastern San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coast Ranges in open grasslands at elevations of 80 to 830 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white flowers with pink-stained corollas and yellow appendages in small clusters. Growing with erect stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall that are reddish and covered in soft, spreading hairs, it has a short-lived basal rosette of linear leaves. Its leaves are distinctively marked with red midveins, with basal leaves 2 to 8 centimeters long and cauline leaves becoming progressively smaller and more oblong. The fruit consists of 2 to 4 pale gray-green nutlets that are triangular-ovate and slightly arched, with a narrow white-winged ridge.

Habitat: Open grassland, friable clay to sandy soils

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 80-830 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, w SnJV, e SnFrB, SCoR.

California counties: Fresno, Yolo, Monterey, Glenn, Colusa, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Lake, Stanislaus, Kings, El Dorado, Contra Costa, Shasta

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