Silene bernardina

Palmer's catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Palmer's catchfly is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and northern Desert Mountains in rocky slopes, scrub, conifer forest, and alpine habitats at elevations of 1,350 to 3,600 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces white, pink, or purple flowers with petals 4 to 6 millimeters long and distinctive two-parted appendages. Growing 15 to 55 centimeters tall with erect stems that are puberulent and glandular, particularly toward the upper portions. Its leaves transition from lower oblanceolate leaves 2 to 8 centimeters long and 2 to 6 millimeters wide to upper linear leaves 1 to 6 centimeters long and 1 to 4 millimeters wide. The fruit is approximately elliptic, carried on a short 2 to 5 millimeter stalk, with brown seeds 1.5 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, scrub, conifer forest, alpine

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1350-3600 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, GB, n DMtns

California counties: Alpine, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Lassen, Mono, San Bernardino, San Diego, Shasta, Tulare, Butte, Plumas, Amador, Glenn, Madera, Mendocino, Tuolumne, Ventura, Nevada, Sierra, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Trinity, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Modoc, Lake, Humboldt, Del Norte, Placer

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