Pleuricospora fimbriolata

Fringed pinesap

Family: Ericaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Fringed pinesap is a California native perennial found in northern coastal, Klamath, and Sierra Nevada mountain regions in mixed and conifer forests at elevations of 150 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from June to August, this non-green plant produces delicate yellow-cream flowers with jagged petal margins emerging directly from the ground. Growing without a visible stem, this fleshy and glabrous plant emerges as a pale, translucent raceme approximately 6 to 10 centimeters tall. Its unique structure lacks typical leaves, instead presenting as a delicate, ephemeral structure that dries brown or black at the tips after flowering. The plant produces small cream to white berries containing multiple ovate seeds, highlighting its distinctive parasitic nature in forest understories.

Habitat: Mixed or conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 150-2800 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, NCoRO, CaRH, SNH, SnFrB

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Tuolumne, Butte, Siskiyou, Mendocino, Humboldt, Mariposa, Tehama, Plumas, Madera, El Dorado, Monterey, Nevada, Santa Cruz, Trinity, Calaveras, Placer, San Mateo, Shasta, Sierra, Del Norte, Lassen

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