Plagiobothrys undulatus

Wavy-stemmed popcornflower, Wavy-Stemmed Popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Wavy-stemmed popcornflower is a California native annual found in coastal and central California regions including northern Coast Ranges, southern Sacramento Valley, central western California, southern California, and Peninsular Ranges in wet places and vernal pools at elevations below 400 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces tiny white flowers with pale yellow appendages in small clusters. Growing with erect stems that turn decumbent, reaching 10 to 40 centimeters tall and covered in sparse short strigose hairs, it develops slender cauline leaves 2 to 6 centimeters long. Its small nutlets are brown, ovate to lance-shaped, with distinctive cross-ribs and a prominent ridge running along most of the fruit's length. The plant's delicate structure and ability to thrive in ephemeral wet habitats make it a characteristic species of California's seasonal wetland ecosystems.

Habitat: Wet places, vernal pools

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 400 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, s ScV, CW (exc SCoRI), SCo, WTR, PR.

California counties: Monterey, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Marin, Sonoma, San Diego, Napa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Ventura, Mendocino, Placer, Kern, San Joaquin, El Dorado, Sacramento, Madera, Tehama, Fresno, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Mateo, Sutter, Solano, Modoc, Merced, Santa Clara

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