Plagiobothrys trachycarpus

Rough-nutlet popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Rough-nutlet popcornflower is a California native annual found in southern San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, southern California, western Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in shallow vernal pools, grasslands, scrub, chaparral, and woodland habitats at elevations up to 1,390 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces small white flowers with yellow appendages approximately 1.5 to 4 millimeters in diameter. Growing with prostrate to ascending stems 5 to 40 centimeters long and covered in dense strigose hairs, it has distinctive cauline leaves primarily found on the lower stem. Its leaves spread 5 to 10 centimeters along the stem, with the plant forming a somewhat dense, spreading growth pattern. The fruit consists of small, wide-ovate nutlets with intricate surface ridges and granular-papillate textures, each nutlet measuring 1 to 1.7 millimeters wide.

Habitat: Shallow vernal pools, wet places in grassland, scrub, chaparral, woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1390 m

Bioregions: s ScV, SnJV, SnFrB, SCoRO, SCo, WTR, PR.

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Contra Costa, Merced, Kern, Placer, San Diego, Sacramento, Marin, Alameda, San Joaquin, San Benito, Stanislaus, Santa Barbara, Humboldt, Santa Clara, Ventura, Solano

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