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California sun cup, southern suncup

robust subcup, robust suncup

Habit Herbs annual, rarely short-lived perennial, usually villous, sometimes strigillose. Herbs annual, villous, usually also glandular puberulent distally.
Stems

1–several from base, ascending or decumbent, to 80 cm.

erect, with 1 or more ascending branches from base, to 60 cm.

Leaves

1.2–12 × 0.2–1.5 cm;

petiole 0–4 cm, distal ones 0–0.3 cm;

blade (basal) narrowly elliptic or (cauline) usually narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, rarely linear, base (basal) narrowly cuneate, (cauline) cuneate or subcordate, margins usually sparsely and inconspicuously denticulate, apex acute.

1–8 × 1.5–2 cm;

subsessile;

blade narrowly lanceolate-elliptic, base cuneate to truncate, basal often attenuate, margins denticulate, apex acute.

Flowers

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 2–5(–7.5) mm;

sepals (2.3–)5–8(–11) mm;

petals yellow, each usually with 1 bright red dot, rarely 2, near base, (4.2–)7–15 mm; episepalous filaments (1–)1.5–3.5 mm, epipetalous filaments (0.5–)1–2.5 mm, anthers (0.5–)1.3–2(–2.5) mm, less than 5% of pollen grains 4- or 5-pored;

style (5.5–)7–12 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 1.8–3.7 mm;

sepals 2.6–4.2 mm;

petals yellow, usually with 1 or 2 red dots basally, 3.2–7 mm; episepalous filaments 1.8–3 mm, epipetalous filaments 1–1.5 mm, anthers 0.8–3 mm, 70–100% of pollen grains 4-pored;

style 3–6.2 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis.

Capsules

straight or somewhat contorted, weakly 4-angled, 12–40 × 1.5–2.5 mm.

usually 1-coiled spiral, 4-angled, 14–25 × 1.5–2 mm.

Seeds

0.9–1 mm.

0.9–1.2 mm.

2n

= 14.

= 42.

Camissoniopsis bistorta

Camissoniopsis robusta

Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun. Flowering (Jan–)Mar–Jun(–Sep).
Habitat Sandy or clayey soils, coastal strands, grasslands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, oak woodlands, margins of Sonoran and Mojave deserts, rarely higher elevation meadows. Coastal sage, chaparral, disturbed or open places.
Elevation 0–1600(–2600) m. [0–5200(–8500) ft.] 0–600(–800) m. [0–2000(–2600) ft.]
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Camissoniopsis bistorta occurs in California from Ventura County south and east through the counties of southern Los Angeles, southwestern San Bernardino, Orange, western Riverside, and the western two-thirds of San Diego, reaching the margins of the desert in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and southward in cismontane Baja California to Ojos Negros and San Vicente. The species occurs at exceptionally high elevations in the Santa Ana drainage of the San Bernardino Mountains. P. H. Raven (1969) indicated that there were occasional apparent hybrids between C. cheiranthifolia subsp. suffruticosa and C. bistorta occurring in intermediate habitats in areas where the two species co-occur. He determined that C. bistorta is self-incompatible.

Camissoniopsis bistorta was apparently introduced with stream gravel in 1959 in Goleta Marsh, Santa Barbara, California, and on ballast heaps at Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1893. It has apparently not persisted at either site.

Oenothera heterophylla Nuttall ex Hooker & Arnott (1839), not Spach (1836), is an illegitimate name that pertains to Camissoniopsis bistorta.

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

Camissoniopsis robusta occurs in coastal San Diego County, California, and coastal northwestern Baja California, south to the vicinity of El Rosario; also on Guadalupe, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, and Santa Cruz (rare) islands. P. H. Raven (1969) determined C. robusta to be self-compatible and primarily autogamous. Based on the intermediate morphology of this hexaploid, Raven suggested that it was derived from two species with which it occurs nearly throughout its rather limited range, the tetraploid C. intermedia (2n = 28) and the diploid C. lewisii (2n = 14).

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

Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Camissoniopsis Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Camissoniopsis
Sibling taxa
C. cheiranthifolia, C. confusa, C. guadalupensis, C. hardhamiae, C. hirtella, C. ignota, C. intermedia, C. lewisii, C. luciae, C. micrantha, C. pallida, C. robusta
C. bistorta, C. cheiranthifolia, C. confusa, C. guadalupensis, C. hardhamiae, C. hirtella, C. ignota, C. intermedia, C. lewisii, C. luciae, C. micrantha, C. pallida
Synonyms Oenothera bistorta, Camissonia bistorta, O. bistorta var. veitchiana, Sphaerostigma bistortum, S. bistortum var. veitchianum, S. veitchianum Camissonia robusta
Name authority (Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 204. (2007) (P. H. Raven) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 205. (2007)
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