Payne's Creek is a 33.7 miles (54.2 km) natural watercourse in Tehama County, California

Tehama County, California

Tehama County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. It is bisected by the Sacramento River. As of 2010 its population was 63,463, up from 56,039 as of 2000. The county seat is Red Bluff.-History:...

. The creek

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 was apparently originally called Paines Creek according to an 1879 land survey map of the area. The town of Paynes Creek

Paynes Creek, California

Paynes Creek is a census-designated place in Tehama County, California. It is east of Red Bluff. Its ZIP code is 96075 and telephone prefixes follow , which is shared with the town of Dales, about to the west. The town is named for the eponymous watercourse Payne's Creek. Paynes Creek sits at...

 was named after the creek.

The Payne's Creek watershed contains forested reaches, and also provides habitat for numerous understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

 flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 and fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

. An example wildflower

Wildflower

A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...

 found in the watershed is the poppy Calochortus luteus

Calochortus luteus

Calochortus luteus, or Yellow mariposa lily, is a mariposa lily endemic to California.-Description:The primarily a bright deep yellow flower is 3-5cm across and perianth Bulb-shaped, lined red-brown inside, often also with central red-brown blotch and sparse hair inside.-Distribution:This species...

, which is at its northern limit at the location of the Payne's Creek watershed.