Prosartes hookeri

Drops of gold

Family: Liliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Drops of gold is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and central western California in montane conifer and mixed-evergreen forests at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers in small clusters of 1 to 3 blooms, with perianth parts 8 to 18 millimeters long that spread open at the middle. Growing 30 to 80 centimeters tall with stems that may be hairy or smooth, it develops an upright and somewhat delicate form. Its leaves range 3 to 15 centimeters long, with leaf margins featuring many short, sharp, ascending hairs and minute rough surfaces, particularly along the leaf veins. The fruit is a red, nearly spherical structure 7 to 12 millimeters long, typically containing more than three seeds.

Habitat: Montane conifer, mixed-evergreen forest, exposed roadsides

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SN, CW

California counties: Del Norte, Monterey, Tulare, Marin, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Napa, Placer, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, Alameda, Glenn, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Nevada, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Trinity, Tuolumne, Tehama, Sierra, Plumas

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