Scandix pecten-veneris

Venus' needle, Venus' Needle

Family: Apiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Venus' needle is a naturalized annual found in the California Floristic Province on grassy slopes and roadsides at elevations of 15 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces delicate white flowers in small clusters with lance-linear bractlets. Growing 15 to 50 centimeters tall with ascending stems, it develops a distinctive feathery appearance with finely divided leaves. Its leaves have thin, linear segments approximately 1.5 millimeters long, creating a delicate, lacy foliage structure. The fruit features an elongated beak 2 to 7 centimeters long that is compressed and bristly-ciliate, giving the plant its needle-like character.

Habitat: Grassy slopes, roadsides

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 15-1000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Marin, Lake, Santa Barbara, Placer, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, Butte, Sonoma, San Francisco, Humboldt, Solano, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Ventura, Napa, Amador, Yuba, Orange, Alameda, El Dorado, Nevada, Calaveras, Colusa, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Tehama, Shasta, San Diego, Tuolumne, Riverside, Yolo

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