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Spoonsepal spineflower

Chorizanthe obovata

Also called Spoon Sepal Spineflower

Spoonsepal spineflower
Photo: George Williams, CC BY 4.0

Spoonsepal spineflower is a small annual wildflower native to the mountains of California's Central Coast, found in chaparral and woodland. It grows prostrate or erect and is hardy only in its native dry, Mediterranean-type climate, where it sets seed and dies back each year.

Family
Polygonaceae (Buckwheat family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it is adapted to dry summers and needs little or no irrigation once established.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or gravelly soil; poor soils suit it well.
Temperature
Tolerates mild coastal and Mediterranean conditions; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
W. California
Climate
subtropical

About

Chorizanthe obovata is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name spoonsepal spineflower. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the mountains of the Central Coast Range from Monterey to Santa Barbara Counties.

Chorizanthe obovata grows in chaparral and woodland habitat. The plant is variable in appearance, growing prostrate or erect, its stem up to 40 centimeters long. The herbage is red to gray-green in color and hairy in texture. The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers surrounded by six bracts, each tipped with hooked awns except the longest, which may have a straight awn. The flower itself is 4 or 5 millimeters wide and white to pinkish in color.

Other Chorizanthe plants

Narrowleaf spineflower · Irish Hills Spineflower · Twolobe spineflower · Blakley's spineflower · Brittle spineflower · San Luis Obispo spineflower · Wrinkled spineflower · San Francisco spineflower · Diffuse spineflower · Douglas' spineflower · Fringed spineflower · Mendocino spineflower

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Chorizanthe obovata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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