Index / Search / Eschscholzia californica
§1 Plant
Eschscholzia californica Cham.
vernacular California poppy — species · Papaveraceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual, Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Papaveraceae Juss.
- Genus
- Eschscholzia
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 37 counties across 9 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- Medium
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 7 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 120 min.
- Precipitation
- 8–18 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.8–7.5
- Root depth
- 10 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 1.2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Medium
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Orange
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 269,888
- Propagation
- seed, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 37 counties across 9 states/territories.
Alabama view state ↗ 2 N ▾
Alaska view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Arizona view state ↗ 13 N ▾
Georgia view state ↗ 2 N ▾
Kentucky view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 4 N ▾
New York view state ↗ 7 N ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 6 N ▾
West Virginia view state ↗ 1 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/ESCA2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2888380 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T05:06:36Z