Platystemon californicus

Cream cups

Family: Papaveraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Cream cups is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native annual found in California Floristic Province and western Desert regions in open grasslands and sandy soil at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to May, this delicate plant produces cream-colored flowers with yellow bases, featuring six narrow petals 6 to 19 millimeters long that often persist after blooming. Growing 3 to 30 centimeters tall with shaggy-hairy stems, it develops a distinctive branching habit with linear to lanceolate leaves arranged alternately and in whorls. Its leaves range from 1 to 9 centimeters long, spreading in a loose, airy pattern across the plant's slender structure. The fruit develops as an ovoid to linear pod 10 to 16 millimeters long, which breaks into individual seed-bearing segments.

Habitat: Open grassland, sandy soil, burns

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, w D

California counties: Humboldt, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, Monterey, Sacramento, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, San Francisco, Tuolumne, Colusa, Napa, Mendocino, Madera, Del Norte, San Mateo, Nevada, Merced, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Butte, San Joaquin, Fresno, Alameda, Inyo, El Dorado, Santa Clara, Marin, Amador, Sonoma, Lake, Calaveras, Glenn, Sutter, Contra Costa, Trinity, Sierra, Placer, Mariposa, Solano, Tehama, Shasta, Stanislaus, Kings, Yuba, Yolo

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