When does California shieldpod bloom in California?

Most often in April. Across 807 dated, research-grade observations of Dithyrea californica in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to December.

Peak April In flower 807 Examined 865 State California

Flowering 807 in flower of 865 examined

93%

94%

96%

100%

69%

80%

Proportion of examined Dithyrea californica in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	138	148	93%	88% to 96%
Feb	255	271	94%	91% to 96%
Mar	320	334	96%	93% to 97%
Apr	30	30	100%	89% to 100%
May	1	1	too few examined
Jun	0	0	too few examined
Jul	0	0	too few examined
Aug	0	0	too few examined
Sep	0	0	too few examined
Oct	0	0	too few examined
Nov	11	16	69%	44% to 86%
Dec	52	65	80%	69% to 88%

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Dithyrea californica 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. 807 of 865 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 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 Dithyrea californica 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

Dithyrea californica

California shieldpod

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.