Index / Search / Orthocarpus luteus
§1 Plant — species · Scrophulariaceae
Orthocarpus luteus Nutt.
vernacular yellow owl's-clover
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Scrophulariaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Orthocarpus
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Low
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 52 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 130 min.
- Precipitation
- 10–24 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–8.5
- Root depth
- 10 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Mature height
- 1.5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Early Summer
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 3,492,307
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- No Known Source
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 24 of 56 Montana counties.
Native · 24 counties
- Beaverhead 30001
- Big Horn 30003
- Carbon 30009
- Cascade 30013
- Chouteau 30015
- Fergus 30027
- Gallatin 30031
- Garfield 30033
- Golden Valley 30037
- Lewis and Clark 30049
- McCone 30055
- Meagher 30059
- Missoula 30063
- Park 30067
- Phillips 30071
- Powell 30077
- Prairie 30079
- Richland 30083
- Stillwater 30095
- Sweet Grass 30097
- Teton 30099
- Treasure 30103
- Valley 30105
- Wibaux 30109
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/ORLU2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3171645 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z