Plectritis ciliosa

Long spurred plectritis

Family: Valerianaceae · Type: annual · Native

Long spurred plectritis is a California native annual found in the California Floristic Province on open, partly shaded slopes at elevations below 2,100 meters. Flowering from March to June, this delicate plant produces pink to dark pink flowers with distinctive two-lipped corollas featuring two red spots and a slender, pointed spur. Growing with thin, branching stems, it reaches modest heights typical of annual wildflowers. Its flowers have intriguing details, including bracts with reddish hues and a corolla measuring 1.5 to 8.5 millimeters long. When mature, its fruits develop pink to brown wings with vertical bands of hairs, with wing margins dramatically thickening as the fruit develops.

Habitat: Common. Open, partly shaded slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 2100 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

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

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