Justicia californica
From California Natives Wiki
Species Name: Justicia californica
Common Name: Chuparosa or Beloperone
- Great shrub for desert gardens. Beautiful, multi-stemmed shrub with numerous red flowers. Plant is usually leafless while in bloom. Hummingbirds love it.
- Plant Family: Acanthaceae
- Plant Type: Shrub
- Height by Width: 6' H x 6' W
- Growth Habit: Mounding
- Deciduous/Evergreen: Semi-deciduous
- Growth Rate: Fast
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Soil Preference: Well-draining, rocky
- Water Requirements: Drought-tolerant to infrequent
- Cold Hardy to: Frost tender
- Flower Season: Spring/Summer
- Flower Color: Red
- Endangered?: Not listed
- Distribution: Western Peninsular Range (San Diego River east of Wildcat Canyon), Sonoran Desert
- Natural Habitat: Dry sandy or rocky soils, especially washes below 2,400'
- Care and Maintenance
- History
- Introduced into cultivation in California by Theodore Payne.
- From California Native Plants, Theodore Payne's 1941 catalog: "An interesting shrub from the northern and western edges of the Colorado Desert. Of sprawling habit 2 to 4 feet high; leaves small, ovate or oval, dropping early leaving a mass of interlacing dull gray green branches. The flowers are red, tubular-shaped appearing abundantly in late winter and spring, when the bushes are a blaze of color. Responds well to cultivation. Gallon cans, 60c."
- Other Names
- Beloperone californica
- References
- Bornstein, Carol, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien. California Native Plants for the Garden. Los Olivos, CA: Cachuma Press. 2005.
- Links
