Coptis occidentalis(Nutt.) Torr. & A.Gray

Idaho goldthread

WFO wfo-0000619862 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Sean Haight
fig. a Sean Haight, CC0 1.0 / 2021-06-26 / obs. 143660546
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Ben Meredyk
fig. b Ben Meredyk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118459206
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Ben Meredyk
fig. c Ben Meredyk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118460089
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Ben Meredyk
fig. d Ben Meredyk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118460392
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Nolan Exe
fig. e Nolan Exe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85927703
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by Charles Swift
fig. f Charles Swift, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 11426780
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by marek
fig. g marek, CC0 1.0 / obs. 190551791
Coptis occidentalis, photographed by John Powers
fig. h John Powers, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183387090

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 3 botanical countries

Regions where Coptis occidentalis is native: Idaho, Montana, Washington IdahoMontanaWashington
Native distribution of Coptis occidentalis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Idaho IDA NORTHERN AMERICA
Montana MNT
Washington WAS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 2 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chrysocoptis occidentalis Nutt.
  • Coptis occidentalis var. howellii Huth

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.