When does western leatherwood bloom in California?

Most often in February. Across 932 dated, research-grade observations of Dirca occidentalis in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to December.

Peak February In flower 932 Examined 1,037 State California

Flowering 932 in flower of 1,037 examined

95%

99%

83%

24%

14%

73%

88%

Proportion of examined Dirca occidentalis in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	315	331	95%	92% to 97%
Feb	432	437	99%	97% to 100%
Mar	121	145	83%	77% to 89%
Apr	10	42	24%	13% to 39%
May	1	7	14%	3% to 51%
Jun	0	3	too few examined
Jul	0	1	too few examined
Aug	0	3	too few examined
Sep	0	3	too few examined
Oct	0	3	too few examined
Nov	8	11	73%	43% to 90%
Dec	45	51	88%	77% to 95%

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Dirca occidentalis 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. 932 of 1,037 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 Dirca occidentalis 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

Dirca occidentalis

western leatherwood

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.