Nemophila spatulata is a dicot in the family of Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae, the Borage or Forget-me-not family, include a variety of shrubs, trees, and herbs, totaling about 2,000 species in 146 genera found worldwide.A number of familiar plants belong to this family....

. It is an annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 herb that grows in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and adjacent areas of western North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. The common name for N. spatulata is the "Sierra baby blue-eyes" or "Sierra Nemophila".

The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s of N. spatulata are bowl-shaped, white or blue and generally veined and dotted. The lobes are sometimes purple-spotted. The corolla is 2–8 mm long and 2–10 mm wide. The leaves are opposite, 5–30 mm long, and the petiole is winged. The lower blades have 3–5 lobes, are shallow and generally entire. The upper blade lobes have 3–5 triangular teeth.

The seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s are brown and are smooth but shallowly pitted. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 produces between 5-7 seeds.

Habitat and Plant Communities

N. spatulata is found on slopes in elevations between 1,100 and 3,000 m. It grows in the following plant communities:

• Yellow pine forest
• Red fir forest
• Lodgepole forest

Bioregional Distribution

N. spatulata is distributed in meadows, road banks and woodlands. It is found in the following areas:

• High Cascade Range
  Cascade Range
  The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
  
  
• S. Sierra Nevada Foothills
• High Sierra Nevada
• Tehachapi Mountains
  Tehachapi Mountains
  The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...
  
   Area
• Transverse Ranges
  Transverse Ranges
  The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region that runs along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie between...
  
  
• San Bernardino Mountains
  San Bernardino Mountains
  The San Bernardino Mountains are a short transverse mountain range north and east of San Bernardino in Southern California in the United States. The mountains run for approximately 60 miles east-west on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert in southwestern San Bernardino County, north of the...
  
  
• San Jacinto Mountains
  San Jacinto Mountains
  The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for Saint Hyacinth . The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to...
  
  
• Warner Mountains
  Warner Mountains
  The Warner Mountains are an 85-mile-long mountain range running north-south through northeastern California and extending into southern Oregon in the United States...