Silene menziesii

Menzies' catchfly, Menzies' Catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Menzies' catchfly is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, and Great Basin in conifer forest and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 900 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces white flowers with delicate two-lobed petals creating a distinctive appearance. Growing as a mat-like perennial with multiple branching stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, it develops decumbent to erect stems that are puberulent and often glandular. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, measuring 2 to 6 centimeters long and 3 to 20 millimeters wide, slightly reduced toward the stem tips. The plant produces small black seeds approximately 0.5 to 1 millimeter in size, with ovoid fruits borne on short stalks.

Habitat: Conifer forest, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 900-2900 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, SnBr, GB

California counties: Inyo, San Bernardino, Modoc, Siskiyou, Alpine, Tulare, Fresno, Trinity, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Tuolumne, Mono, Humboldt, El Dorado

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