Torreyostellaria jamesiana

Tuber starwort, Tuber Starwort

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Tuber starwort is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, western Transverse Ranges, and Modoc Plateau in meadows, sagebrush-grassland, and dry conifer forest understory at elevations of 1,400 to 2,700 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces delicate white flowers with purple anthers, forming small clusters in leafy cymes. Growing 12 to 45 centimeters tall with ascending to erect stems that are distinctively 4-angled and glandular-hairy, it develops unique spherical to elongate tuber-like thickenings at its base. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, 15 to 150 millimeters long, with a single vein and margins ranging from smooth to slightly roughened. The fruit is a spherical capsule with six valves, containing one to two reddish-brown seeds 2 to 3.4 millimeters long.

Habitat: Meadows, sagebrush-grassland, dry understory of conifer forest

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 1400-2700 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SN (exc n SNF), WTR, MP

California counties: Fresno, Kern, Lake, Alpine, Modoc, Butte, Lassen, Mariposa, Mendocino, Plumas, San Bernardino, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Shasta, Ventura, Humboldt, Madera

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