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Great Basin suncup, Lewis River suncup, tiny sun cup

Habit Herbs usually glabrous or densely strigillose, rarely villous (mostly proximally), also often sparsely glandular puberulent, especially distally. Herbs (annual or perennial), [shrubs].
Stems

erect, slender, wiry, often branched, 2–15 cm.

Leaves

proximalmost not clustered near base;

blade linear or linear-filiform, 1–3 × 0.04–0.1 cm, base attenuate, margins subentire, apex acute.

alternate or basal;

stipules absent.

Flowers

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 1.3–2 mm, glabrate;

sepals 1.5–2.5 mm, reflexed separately;

petals 1.5–3.6 mm, without red dots at base;

filaments 0.5–1 mm, anthers 0.3–0.6 mm, pollen with less than 5% of grains 4- or 5-pored;

style 1.5–3 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis.

usually actinomorphic, rarely slightly zygomorphic (in Oenothera), (3 or)4-merous;

stamens 2 times as many, or rarely as many, as sepals;

pollen usually shed in monads, rarely tetrads (Chylismia sect. Lignothera).

Fruit

a dry capsule, usually dehiscent, sometimes indehiscent.

Capsules

15–28 × 0.6–1 mm;

pedicel 0–2 mm.

Seeds

0.7–0.8 × 0.4 mm.

few to numerous, without hairs or wings, [very rarely with asymmetrical dry wing (Xylonagra)], or with dry (Oenothera), erose or smooth wing, or with thick, papillate wings (Chylismiella).

2n

= 28.

Camissonia parvula

Onagraceae tribe Onagreae

Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Sandy soils, usually with sagebrush scrub.
Elevation 100–2700 m. (300–8900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
Discussion

P. H. Raven (1969) determined that Camissonia parvula is a self-compatible tetraploid and autogamous. The species is closely related to C. kernensis and C. pubens.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 13, species 265 (12 genera, 199 species in the flora).

Onagreae account for more than half the total genera in Onagraceae and diversified from a center in southwestern North America (L. Katinas et al. 2004). Delimitation of the tribe by W. L. Wagner et al. (2007) differs from previous ones by the exclusion of Gongylocarpus, now in its own tribe, by the segregation of eight genera (Camissoniopsis, Chylismia, Chylismiella, Eremothera, Eulobus, Neoholmgrenia, Taraxia, and Tetrapteron) from Camissonia, and by the inclusion of three previously separate genera (Calylophus, Gaura, and Stenosiphon) in Oenothera. Within the branch of the family that lacks stipules (Gongylocarpeae, Epilobieae, and Onagreae), the last two tribes form a clade that has very strong molecular support (R. A. Levin et al. 2003, 2004), but no obvious morphological synapomorphy. The clade may be defined by a cytogenetic change from the base chromosome number of x = 11 found in Circaeeae, Gongylocarpeae, and Lopezieae, to x = 18 in Epilobieae, and x = 7 in Onagreae; however, these changes could also have occurred independently. Other than the new chromosome number x = 7, the only apparent morphological synapomorphy for Onagreae alone is pollen with prominent apertural protrusions (J. Praglowski et al. 1987, 1989), a character state also found in Circaeeae (Praglowski et al. 1994). The monophyly of Onagreae has moderate (Levin et al. 2004) to strong support (V. S. Ford and L. D. Gottlieb 2007).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Camissonia Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Sibling taxa
C. benitensis, C. campestris, C. contorta, C. integrifolia, C. kernensis, C. lacustris, C. pubens, C. pusilla, C. sierrae, C. strigulosa
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms Oenothera parvula, O. contorta var. flexuosa, Sphaerostigma contortum var. flexuosum, S. filiforme, S. flexuosum, S. parvulum
Name authority (Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray) P. H. Raven: Brittonia 16: 284. (1964) Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 89. (1827)
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