Sabulina stolonifera

Scott mountain sandwort, Scott Mountain Sandwort

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.3

Scott mountain sandwort is a rare (CNPS 1B.3) California native perennial found in the southern Klamath Ranges on Scott Mountain in Siskiyou County, growing in serpentine soils and Jeffrey pine forest at elevations of 1,250 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces white flowers with petals slightly longer than its narrow, pointed sepals. Growing as a mat-forming herb 10 to 20 centimeters tall with trailing stems that spread 6 to 20 centimeters, it forms dense gray-green ground cover with a robust taproot. Its leaves are distinctive needle-like structures 5 to 9 millimeters long, extremely narrow and rigid, often shorter than the spaces between stem nodes. The small seeds have a thick margin colored red-brown to brown, highlighting this plant's unique adaptation to challenging serpentine environments.

Habitat: Serpentine soils, Jeffrey-pine forest

Bloom period: Spring-summer

Elevation: 1250-1400 m

Bioregions: s KR (Scott Mtn, Siskiyou Co.).

California counties: Siskiyou

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