Rhinotropis californica

California milkwort

Family: Polygalaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California milkwort is a California native perennial found in northwestern, central western, and northern Channel Islands bioregions in coastal prairie, forest, and chaparral habitats at elevations of 10 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces small pink to white flowers 9 to 14.5 millimeters long with distinctive ciliate sepals. Growing with decumbent stems 5 to 35 centimeters tall from a rhizomatous base, it spreads in low, spreading clusters. Its leaves are 7 to 60 millimeters long, varying from lanceolate to elliptic or obovate in shape, positioned along the softly spreading stems. The fruit is green, 4.5 to 10.5 millimeters long, developing with small seeds that include delicate hair-like attachments.

Habitat: Coastal prairie and forest, chaparral, occasionally on serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 10-1400 m

Bioregions: NW, CW (exc SCoRI), n ChI

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, Sonoma, San Mateo, Napa, Siskiyou, Marin, Lake, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Trinity, Placer, Fresno, Solano, Orange

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