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Roundhead Chinese houses

Collinsia corymbosa

Also called Round Headed Chinese Houses

Roundhead Chinese houses is a small annual wildflower from the sand dunes of the California coast, north of San Francisco Bay. It is uncommon in the wild and grows best in sandy, well-drained, sunny spots.

Family
Plantaginaceae (Plantain family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water lightly and let the soil dry between waterings; it is adapted to dry dune conditions.
Soil
Sandy, free-draining soil.
Temperature
Cool to mild temperate conditions; tolerates coastal cool summers and mild winters.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
WC. California
Climate
temperate

About

Collinsia corymbosa is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name round-headed Chinese houses. It is endemic to the coastline of California north of the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is uncommon and scattered. Its habitat is the sand dunes of the immediate coastline. This is an annual herb producing a scaly, hairy, red to reddish green stem which grows upright or decumbent to a maximum length of about 25 centimeters. The thick, sparsely hairy leaves are rippled and lobed along the edges, which may be somewhat turned under. The inflorescence is a dense whorl of several distinctive flowers. Each has a hairy calyx of lobed reddish sepals and a corolla up to about 2 centimeters long. The flower has two small upper lobes and three longer lower lobes which come together in a nearly tubular shape. It is generally white with a light purple tint.

Other Collinsia plants

White blue eyed Mary · Desertmountain blue eyed Mary · Child's blue eyed Mary · Chinese houses · Giant blue eyed Mary · Greene's blue eyed Mary · Purple Chinese houses · Narrowleaf blue eyed Mary · San Francisco blue eyed Mary · Parry's blue eyed Mary · Maiden blue eyed Mary · Sticky blue eyed Mary

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Collinsia corymbosa 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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