Romanzoffia californica

California mistmaiden

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California mistmaiden is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, northern central Coast Ranges, and San Francisco Bay Area in ocean bluffs, roadbanks, wet cliffs, and moist rocky areas at elevations below 800 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white flowers in delicate funnel-shaped clusters 6 to 12 millimeters wide. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with tuber-based stems and slender pedicels, it develops from underground tubers with delicate branching. Its leaves are thin and succulent, with rounded heart-shaped blades 8 to 45 millimeters wide, featuring crenate edges and shallow 5 to 9 lobes. The fruit is an oblong cylindrical structure 6 to 10 millimeters long, containing 15 or more small ellipsoid seeds.

Habitat: Ocean bluffs, roadbanks, wet cliffs, moist rocky areas

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 800 m

Bioregions: NW, n CCo, SnFrB

California counties: Humboldt, Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, Mendocino, Siskiyou, Trinity, San Francisco, El Dorado, Contra Costa, Alameda

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