Synthyris missurica subsp. missurica

Kittentail, Kittentail

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Kittentail is a rare (CNPS 2B.3) California native perennial found in western California mountains in moist forest at elevations of 30 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces distinctive blue flowers in clusters with 15 to 100 blossoms, each corolla up to 10.5 millimeters long. Growing with erect stems up to 33 centimeters tall, it develops a thick flowering axis that becomes prominent in fruit. Its leaves are widely ovate with lobed bases and rounded tips, measuring up to 11 centimeters long and 15 centimeters wide, with petioles reaching 27 centimeters in length. The plant produces small round, flat seeds in fruits up to 8 millimeters long that are glabrous to sparsely hairy.

Habitat: Moist forest

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 30-2900 m

Bioregions: Wrn

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