Streptanthus tortuosus

Mountain jewelflower, Mountain Jewelflower

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mountain jewelflower is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coast Ranges in open conifer forest, alpine areas, and woodland at elevations of 200 to 4,100 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces purple or yellow-white flowers up to 14 millimeters long with distinctive purple-veined petals. Growing with stems 1.5 to 12 decimeters tall, it can be simple or many-branched with a variable growth habit. Its leaves range from broadly ovate basal rosettes to oblong mid-cauline leaves, with distal leaves that are round to oblong-ovate and often glaucous underneath. The fruit is a recurved pod 4 to 13 centimeters long, containing 26 to 76 small seeds with narrow wing margins.

Habitat: Generally rocky to sandy soils, in open conifer forest, alpine areas, woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: 200-4100 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, n SnFrB, SCoRO

California counties: Tulare, Fresno, Mono, Amador, El Dorado, Glenn, Inyo, Lake, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tuolumne, Shasta, Sierra, Alpine, Butte, Madera, Humboldt, Mendocino, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Tehama, Calaveras, San Bernardino, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Del Norte, Marin, Contra Costa, Riverside, Napa, Yuba

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