When does Western Wallflower bloom in California?

Most often in January. Across 936 dated, research-grade observations of Erysimum capitatum in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to September.

Peak January In flower 936 Examined 967 State California

Flowering 936 in flower of 967 examined

100%

89%

94%

97%

99%

95%

90%

Proportion of examined Erysimum capitatum in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	11	11	100%	74% to 100%
Feb	47	53	89%	77% to 95%
Mar	80	85	94%	87% to 97%
Apr	185	191	97%	93% to 99%
May	308	311	99%	97% to 100%
Jun	197	198	99%	97% to 100%
Jul	72	76	95%	87% to 98%
Aug	26	29	90%	74% to 96%
Sep	9	10	90%	60% to 98%
Oct	1	2	too few examined
Nov	0	1	too few examined
Dec	0	0	too few examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Erysimum capitatum 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. 936 of 967 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 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 Erysimum capitatum 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

Erysimum capitatum

Western Wallflower

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.