Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Frankenia palmeri is a species of flowering plant in the frankenia family, Frankeniaceae, known by the common name Palmer's seaheath, or Palmer's frankenia. It is native to the coastline of northwestern Mexico, as well as San Diego County, California, in the United States. It is a plant of sand dunes, beaches, alkali flats, and salt marshes, where it thrives due to its adaptation to saline soils. This is a small, tangling shrub less than a meter tall with spreading stems lined with clusters of knobby, fleshy leaves. Toward the ends of branches flowers appear among the leaf clusters. Each flower has white petals 3 or 4 millimeters long, often washed with pink toward the throat and with pink anthers. The plant is becoming increasingly rare as its habitat on valuable coastal land is consumed for development.

Plant type

Perennial herb

Size

1 - 3 ft Tall

Calscape icon
Color

Pink, White

Sun

Full Sun

Water

Very Low

Soil drainage

Standing

Site type

Alkali flats, marshes, dunes

Plant communities

Alkali Sink, Coastal Salt Marsh, Coastal Strand, Wetland-Riparian

Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

0 confirmed and 1 likely

Confirmed Likely

Agdistis americana