Camissonia kernensis
Camissonia
Kern County evening primrose, Kern sun cups
evening primrose, sun cup, suncups
erect, often many-branched, 5–30 cm.
erect, decumbent, or ascending, usually branched from base and distally, epidermis white or reddish brown, often exfoliating.
proximalmost sometimes clustered near base;
blade usually very narrowly elliptic to narrowly so, rarely lanceolate, 1–3.8(–5.5) × 0.2–0.5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, margins sparsely serrate, apex acuminate.
cauline, proximalmost often clustered near base, alternate;
stipules absent;
subsessile;
blade margins entire, serrulate, or serrate.
usually leafy spikes, sometimes racemes, nodding at anthesis, erect in fruit.
opening near sunrise;
floral tube 2.2–3.8(–5.5) mm, villous inside;
sepals 5–9(–11) mm, reflexed separately;
petals 8–15(–18) mm, each with 2 large red dots basally; episepalous filaments 3.5–5.5(–7) mm, epipetalous filaments 1.3–2(–4.5) mm, anthers 1.8–2(–3) mm, pollen with less than 5% of grains 4- or 5-pored;
style 7–10(–14) mm, stigma well exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.
bisexual, actinomorphic, buds erect;
floral tube deciduous (with sepals, petals, and stamens) after anthesis, with basal nectary;
sepals 4, reflexed separately or in pairs;
petals 4, yellow, fading red, often with red dots basally;
stamens 8, in 2 unequal series, anthers versatile, pollen shed singly;
ovary 4-locular, without apical projection, stigma subentire, subcapitate to subglobose, surface unknown, probably wet and non-papillate.
a capsule, straight to flexuous, cylindrical, subterete, regularly, sometimes tardily, loculicidally dehiscent; usually sessile, sometimes pedicellate.
22–37 × 1.5–1.7 mm;
pedicel 0–15 mm.
1.1–1.2 × 0.5–0.6 mm.
numerous, in 1 row per locule, narrowly obovoid to narrowly oblanceoloid, triangular in cross-section, appearing smooth, glossy.
Camissonia kernensis
Camissonia
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Camissonia kernensis occurs in sagebrush scrub, and Joshua-tree and pinyon-juniper woodlands at elevations of 700–1900 m in southern and central California and southern Nevada. The species is self-incompatible and is apparently pollinated by oligolectic bees of Andrena subg. Onagrandrena (P. H. Raven 1969); Raven subdivided the species into two intergrading subspecies.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 12 (11 in the flora).
Species of Camissonia occur in desert scrub, grasslands, or pinyon-juniper woodlands, on brushy or open slopes and flats, washes, and, sometimes, on serpentine barrens, at elevations 0 to 2300 meters. Camissonia campestris and C. kernensis are self-incompatible diploids; C. pusilla and C. sierrae are self-compatible diploids; C. contorta is an autogamous hexaploid; the other species are autogamous tetraploids. Identification of the polyploid species of Camissonia is aided by their pollen having a high proportion of grains with more pores, usually 4 or 5, than typical 3-pored pollen in Onagraceae. This can be observed under low magnification (for example, 10\×) since 3-pored pollen is triangular, while 4-pored is quadrangular, and 5-pored is pentangular.
P. H. Raven (1969) delineated a group of four closely related species (Camissonia kernensis, C. parvula, C. pubens, and C. pusilla), marked by having sepals reflexed separately (rather than in pairs), which occur mainly in the Great Basin. Of the remaining species of Camissonia in the flora area, several (C. benitensis, C. campestris, C. integrifolia, C. lacustris, and C. sierrae) have more or less restricted ranges within California, or (C. strigulosa) extend also to Baja California, Mexico, or (C. contorta) to Washington, Idaho, and disjunctly to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Camissonia dentata (Cavanilles) Reiche is the twelfth species in the genus, disjunct in western South America from southern Peru southward into Chile and Argentina.
W. L. Wagner et al. (2007) departed significantly from the most recent monograph by P. H. Raven (1969) in the delimitation of Camissonia based on the molecular analysis (R. A. Levin et al. 2004); they recognized eight genera in addition to the much reduced Camissonia: Camissoniopsis, Chylismia, Chylismiella, Eremothera, Eulobus, Neoholmgrenia, Taraxia, and Tetrapteron. Raven noted that Camissonia was the most heterogeneous genus in Onagreae, consisting of sharply distinct sections. He further noted that the capitate or subglobose stigma found in Camissonia, by which he distinguished the genus from the broadly circumscribed Oenothera of P. A. Munz (1965), was also found in Gayophytum, Gongylocarpus Schlechtendal & Chamisso, and Xylonagra Donnell Smith & Rose, thus the primary defining character state for the genus at that time is a plesiomorphy (P. C. Hoch et al. 1993). The redefined Camissonia is morphologically delimited by having subterete capsules that are more or less swollen by seeds, linear to narrowly elliptic leaves, and glossy seeds that are triangular in cross-section and mostly smaller than 1 mm in length; and flowering only at the distal, not basal, nodes; and is without ultraviolet reflectance pattern on petals (Raven). Reproductive features include: self-incompatible (C. campestris, C. kernensis) or self-compatible; flowers diurnal; outcrossing and pollinated by bees (E. G. Linsley et al. 1963, 1963b, 1964, 1973), or autogamous, rarely cleistogamous (Raven).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Herbs compact, sparsely glandular puberulent and villous throughout; leaves: proximalmost often clustered near base; pedicels 3–15 mm in fruit. | subsp. kernensis |
1. Herbs with open habit, glandular puberulent throughout, usually also sparsely villous, or glabrate, with few glandular hairs; leaves: none clustered near base; pedicels 0–5(–15) mm in fruit. | subsp. gilmanii |
1. Sepals reflexed separately. | → 2 |
2. Petals 8–15(–18) mm; sepals 5–9(–11) mm; stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. | C. kernensis |
2. Petals 1.5–4 mm; sepals 1.2–3.8 mm; stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. | → 3 |
3. Leaves cauline, none clustered near base, blade margins entire or subentire; plants usually glabrous or densely strigillose, rarely villous proximally, sometimes sparsely glandular puberulent distally. | C. parvula |
3. Leaves cauline with some clustered near base, blade margins serrulate or undulate-serrulate; plants moderately to densely villous, usually also glandular puberulent, especially distally. | → 4 |
4. Leaf blades 0.04–0.2 cm wide; floral tubes 0.8–1.6 mm; sepals 1.2–2 mm; capsules 18–32 mm. | C. pusilla |
4. Leaf blades 0.2–0.6 cm wide; floral tubes 1.3–3 mm; sepals 2.2–3.8 mm; capsules (18–)26–50 mm. | C. pubens |
1. Sepals reflexed in pairs. | → 5 |
5. Stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis; sepals 3.5–8(–12) mm; petals (3.5–)5–15.5 mm. | C. campestris |
5. Stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis (except sometimes slightly exserted beyond anthers in C. sierrae); sepals (1.2–)1.6–4(–5.5) mm; petals 2–7 mm. | → 6 |
6. Leaf blade margins usually entire, rarely with 1 or 2 small teeth; plants densely strigillose distally. | C. integrifolia |
6. Leaf blade margins usually sparsely serrulate (C. sierrae sometimes with 1–several small teeth); plants glandular puberulent, usually also villous (except also strigillose in C. strigulosa) distally. | → 7 |
7. Leaf blades usually lanceolate to narrowly ovate, sometimes elliptic, base rounded. | C. sierrae |
7. Leaf blades linear to narrowly elliptic, base cuneate or attenuate. | → 8 |
8. Plants usually densely strigillose, often also glandular puberulent, especially distally, sometimes glandular puberulent only and glabrate, sometimes also villous near base; sepals 1.6–4 mm; less than 10% of pollen grains 4-pored. | C. strigulosa |
8. Plants villous, often also glandular puberulent distally, rarely strigillose and glandular puberulent, if so, more than 30% of pollen grains 4 or 5-pored; sepals 1.6–5.5 mm; less than 10% or more than 30% of pollen grains 4 or 5-pored. | → 9 |
9. Sepals (3–)3.8–5.5 mm; petals (4–)4.5–7 mm. | C. lacustris |
9. Sepals 1.6–4 mm; petals 2.5–4(–5) mm. | → 10 |
10. Anthers with less than 10% of pollen grains 4-pored; leaves green or slightly bluish green; floral tubes 1.2 mm; plants villous and also glandular puberulent distally; San Benito County and adjacent Fresno and Monterey counties, California. | C. benitensis |
10. Anthers usually with more than 30% of pollen grains 4 or 5-pored; leaves usually bluish green; floral tubes 1.6–2.7 mm; plants usually villous throughout, often also glandular puberulent distally, rarely entirely strigillose and glandular puberulent; British Columbia, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington. | C. contorta |
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