Description
Native to southwest Oregon and northwest California, carrotleaf horkelia can be found growing at low to mid elevations in oak or madrone woodlands, chaparral, valley grasslands, or pine forests, including Jeffrey pine savannas on serpentine soils. It grows in dry environments, often on clay soils, including serpentine clay. Carrotleaf horkelia is a perennial wildflower in the Rosaceae (rose) plant family that produces a rosette of 2-6″ leaves that are pinnately divided with lobed, hairy leaflets. From the rosette a flowering stem arises, about 6-12″ tall, that can either be green or reddish in color. In late spring or early summer carrotleaf horkelia produces creamy white flowers, but occasionally can have pink or yellow flowers. This species is drought tolerant and prefers full sun to part shade. Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are highly attracted to the flowers. In the photo gallery is a picture we took of a small heliothodes moth (Heliothodes diminutiva) utilizing carrotleaf horkelia flowers in late May in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon.
Carrotleaf horkelia (Horkelia daucifolia) seed packets contain approximately 35 seeds per packet.
Seed Germination Instructions
No current germination protocols exist for this species and we are working on a seed germination protocol. For now, we just recommend sowing outside in fall to early winter in areas with cold winter climates, as we assume this species needs some cold-moist stratification to germinate in the spring.
