When does Bush Poppy bloom in California?

Most often in May. Across 1,326 dated, research-grade observations of Dendromecon rigida in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to August.

Peak May In flower 1,326 Examined 1,387 State California

Flowering 1,326 in flower of 1,387 examined

97%

95%

99%

97%

92%

86%

73%

61%

47%

68%

Proportion of examined Dendromecon rigida in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	57	59	97%	88% to 99%
Feb	97	102	95%	89% to 98%
Mar	243	246	99%	96% to 100%
Apr	322	326	99%	97% to 100%
May	322	324	99%	98% to 100%
Jun	154	159	97%	93% to 99%
Jul	54	59	92%	82% to 96%
Aug	24	28	86%	69% to 94%
Sep	16	22	73%	52% to 87%
Oct	14	23	61%	41% to 78%
Nov	8	17	47%	26% to 69%
Dec	15	22	68%	47% to 84%

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Dendromecon rigida in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,326 of 1,387 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Dendromecon rigida in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Dendromecon rigida

Bush Poppy

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.