Seems to be a not entirely uncommon landscape plant around here. I collected some seeds from one a few years ago and always wondered what it was. The flowers are fragrant, the plant produces lots of seed pods containing many seeds and it seems to prefer dryer, poor soil. In my yard, the seeds like to sprout in cracks in the concrete.
Here’s my four-year-old specimen.
Here’s a young one, growing out of the pavement.
The leaves are soft & velvety, like a lamb’s ear plant.
Are there four or five petals? I can’t tell from the picture.
My immediate impression was plumeria of some kind, but they’re mostly tropical. Monterey is closer to SF than LA. Plus plumeria has glossy leaves.
Not sure yet…
Four petals. Mostly white, but tinged with purple. They seem to become increasingly purple as they age, which isn’t very long. Then they fall off and the pod begins to form. The flowers are small; no longer or wider than about 1/2" when the petals are open. I’ve seen other color varieties in the area. More purple, and maybe some yellow ones.
I googled plumeria - definitely not that. The leaves are very soft & floppy & velvety on this plant. The central stem/truck is very hard & woody though.
The four petals and the seedpods are making me thing Mustard family. I’ll follow that train of thought…
You may be on to something with the Mustard family idea. It looks a lot like this Wall Flower illustration. The pods also look a lot like the right-most illustration on that page.
Come to think of it, I had a radish (which is the same family) bloom earlier this year and the flowers look similar.
But the leaves & stems don’t look like anything I’ve come across yet.
That’s exactly the problem I’m having…the leaves aren’t at all consistent with what I’m finding on Google Images. A lot of mustards have divided or lobed leaves. None that I’ve found have the ovate entire leaves like yours. It’s possible it’s something in the cabbage subfamily. Chinese cabbage have elongated entire leaves like that, but they’re not tomentose (fuzzy) like yours either.
Well, I’m absolutely sure it is a member of the Mustard/Cabbage family. The typical seedpods and the four petals are typical. Problem is, the Mustardfamily is one of the largest families there is, containing hundreds of species.
Other then that, I’ve got nothing.
How tall does it grow?
In a pot, about 3’. The couple I’ve seen growing nearby locally in the ground, maybe 4-5’ or so.
Brassicaceae/Cruciferae, without a doubt. Looks a bit like Erysimum (perennial wallflowers).
anything I don’t recognize automatically gets labeled poison ivy 
I think I found it.
First I found a Matthiola incana or Hoary Stock, and thought that was close. But it’s an annual and doesn’t get tall.
But armed with the knowledge I’m looking for a Stock, I found Matthiola arborescens, the Treestock. Now that looks like my plant.
Doesn’t appear very common in the States. Don’t know why. It’s a handsome plant, easy to grow and smells good.
Thanks for the help guys. jayjay, if you hadn’t pointed me towards the Mustard family, I may never have found it.
:smack:
Stock isn’t grown much anymore in the US. It’s kind of an old-fashioned garden plant and isn’t very popular now. I still should have thought of it, though…
Old-fashioned, eh?
Well if and when I move away from Monterey, I’m bringing lots of seeds with me. I like owning a plant that stumped the 'Dope for a full 18 hours. 
