Sagina apetala

Dwarf pearlwort, Dwarf Pearlwort

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Dwarf pearlwort is a naturalized annual found in northwestern California, the northern Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central Coast Ranges, southern California, and northern Channel Islands in sandy disturbed areas, river bars, and streamsides at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from spring to early summer, this tiny plant produces inconspicuous white flowers less than 2 millimeters long. Growing with thread-like stems 3 to 8 centimeters tall, it forms delicate, erect to decumbent plants with glandular hairs toward the top. Its narrow linear leaves are minutely ciliate near the base, measuring 3 to 9 millimeters long. The tiny brown seeds are less than half a millimeter long with a grooved back surface.

Habitat: Sandy disturbed areas, river bars, streamsides

Bloom period: Spring-early summer

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n&ampc SN, GV, CCo, SCoRO, SCo, n ChI, PR

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Monterey, Riverside, San Benito, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Kern, El Dorado, Kings, Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Lake, Yuba, Merced, Mendocino, Humboldt, Marin, Santa Clara, Amador, San Joaquin, Sutter, Solano, Sacramento, Placer, Napa, Yolo, Santa Cruz

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