List of California native plants

California native plants are plants that existed in California prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in the late 18th century.

Numerous plant groupings exist in California, and botanists work to structure them into identifiable ecoregions, plant communities, vegetation types, and habitats, and taxonomies.

[4][5] California native plants include some that have widespread horticultural use.

Some California native plants are in rapid decline in their native habitat due to urban sprawl, agriculture, overgrazing, recreational impacts, pollution, and invasive non-native species (invasive exotics) colonization pressures (animals and other kingdoms of life, as well as plants).

[17] California also has 1,023 species of non-native plants, some now problematic invasive species, such as yellow star-thistle, that were introduced during the Spanish colonization, the California Gold Rush, and subsequent immigrations and import trading of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.