Sonnea hispida

Cascade popcornflower, bristly popcornflower, Bristly Popcornflower

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Cascade popcornflower is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin in dry, sandy or gravelly places at elevations of 1,200 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces small white flowers in compact, coiled clusters with a rotate corolla less than 1.5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with erect stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, it has a distinctive sharp-hairy appearance with a reddish taproot. Its alternate leaves are 1.5 to 4 centimeters long, covered with bulbous-based hairs that give the plant a rough texture. The fruit consists of 1 to 4 ovate nutlets 1 to 2.4 millimeters long, with a slightly prominent abaxial ridge and a dull, papillate-roughened surface.

Habitat: dry places, generally in sandy, gravelly soil

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1200-2800 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, SNH, GB

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

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