When does seep monkeyflower bloom in California?

Most often in May. Across 1,999 dated, research-grade observations of Erythranthe guttata in California, the flowering season runs roughly February to December.

Peak May In flower 1,999 Examined 2,044 State California

Flowering 1,999 in flower of 2,044 examined

79%

91%

95%

99%

100%

99%

97%

99%

97%

89%

90%

88%

Proportion of examined Erythranthe guttata in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	19	24	79%	60% to 91%
Feb	40	44	91%	79% to 96%
Mar	161	170	95%	90% to 97%
Apr	448	453	99%	97% to 100%
May	630	632	100%	99% to 100%
Jun	348	352	99%	97% to 100%
Jul	184	190	97%	93% to 99%
Aug	73	74	99%	93% to 100%
Sep	33	34	97%	85% to 99%
Oct	31	35	89%	74% to 95%
Nov	18	20	90%	70% to 97%
Dec	14	16	88%	64% to 97%

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Erythranthe guttata 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. 1,999 of 2,044 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 Erythranthe guttata 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

Erythranthe guttata

seep monkeyflower

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.