The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Mucronea californica
California spineflower is a rare, ephemeral annual wildflower of sandy coastal sites in southern California. It is grown mainly by native plant enthusiasts and restoration projects, and it needs sandy, well-drained soil and full sun.
Mucronea californica is a rare species of annual plant in the family Polygonaceae known by the common names California spineflower or California mucronea. An ephemeral plant found growing in the sandy microhabitats of coastal sage scrub, chaparral and dunes, this plant is threatened by the urbanization and development of its viable habitat and has been locally extirpated over much of its range. It has small, white to pink flowers that top inflorescences spined with awns.
This species is endemic to California, and is found mostly on the Pacific Coast ranging from San Luis Obispo south to San Diego County, along with a number of locations inland from Monterey County to western Riverside County. It is found along sandy openings in a variety of habitats, from coastal sage scrub, chaparral communities, and dunes to sandy substrates in grasslands and pine-oak woodlands. It is threatened and in substantial decline from the extensive urbanization in southern California, which has made it locally extirpated over much of its historical range.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mucronea californica 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.
