When does sharptooth blacksnakeroot bloom in California?

Most often in February. Across 128 dated, research-grade observations of Sanicula arguta in California, the flowering season runs roughly February to April.

Peak February In flower 128 Examined 151 State California

Flowering 128 in flower of 151 examined

77%

97%

83%

89%

60%

Proportion of examined Sanicula arguta in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	10	13	77%	50% to 92%
Feb	28	29	97%	83% to 99%
Mar	48	58	83%	71% to 90%
Apr	39	44	89%	76% to 95%
May	3	5	60%	23% to 88%
Jun	0	1	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	0	0	too few examined
Dec	0	1	too few examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Sanicula arguta 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. 128 of 151 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 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 Sanicula arguta 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

Sanicula arguta

sharptooth blacksnakeroot

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.