Rosa spithamea

Coast ground rose, Coast Ground Rose

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Coast ground rose is a California native shrub found in northwestern, central western, and mid-Peninsula bioregions in open forest and chaparral, especially in post-fire environments, at elevations of 150 to 1,550 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces delicate pink to red flowers 10 to 15 millimeters long with multiple petals. Growing as a compact dwarf shrub less than 5 decimeters tall, it features scattered slender prickles 3 to 8 millimeters long. Its leaves have 5 to 7 leaflets arranged with 2 to 4 on each side, including a terminal leaflet 10 to 30 millimeters long that is widely elliptic with double-toothed margins. The fruit develops as a nearly spherical structure 7 to 12 millimeters wide, with persistent erect sepals.

Habitat: Open forest, chaparral, especially after fire

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: generally 150-1550(1950) m

Bioregions: NW, CW, MP

California counties: Mendocino, Solano, San Luis Obispo, Napa, Trinity, Humboldt, Lake, Sonoma, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Santa Clara, Butte, Shasta, Tehama, Yuba, Tulare, Del Norte, Tuolumne, El Dorado, San Benito

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