Primula hendersonii

Mosquito bill(s), sailor caps, Sailor Caps

Family: Primulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mosquito bill is a California native perennial found in the northwestern California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, central western, and San Bernardine bioregions in shady sites at elevations below 1,900 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces magenta to deep lavender or white flowers with distinctive corolla lobes 6 to 23 millimeters long. Growing 12 to 48 centimeters tall with glabrous to glandular-hairy stems, it develops unique rice-like bulblets at the flower roots. Its leaves range 2 to 16 centimeters long, with elliptic to ovate blades that narrow abruptly to the petiole and may have slight tooth edges. The plant bears an inflorescence of 3 to 17 flowers, with flower parts arranged in 4s or 5s, and features distinctive dark maroon to black anthers with transversely wrinkled connective tissue.

Habitat: Generally in shady sites

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SNF, n SNH, GV, SnFrB, CW, SnBr

California counties: Madera, Marin, San Mateo, Fresno, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Lake, Santa Cruz

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