California Bee Plant Seeds|Scrophularia californica|California Native Wildflowers|Native Plants|Native Seeds|Southwestern|Garden|Unique Gift

Scrophularia californica is a flowering plant in the figwort family, known by the common names Bee Plant, California Bee Plant, and California Figwort. This perennial herb is native to open places of the coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and woodlands in California, where in moist areas it can form large colonies.

The California Bee Plant is a 2-4 ft. perennial with 3 ft. spikes of red flowers. The triangular-ovate toothed light green to blue-green leaves are in pairs opposite each other on a coarse squarish stem. The red-brown to maroon flowers are rounded hollow buds around 1 cm long, with two longer upper lobes, on bloom spikes from February into July.

This species is very prolific nectar producer attractive to small wasps, bees and bumblebees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. It is the larval foodplant for the Chalcedon Checkerspot butterfly, the plant's iridoid glucosides make the larva poisonous and adults unpalatable.

Scrophularia californica grows well in part-shade with low to moderate moisture, in the ground or in large pots. Packet will contain 50+ seeds.