The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Santa Lucia sun cup

Habit Herbs annual, villous throughout. Herbs (annual or perennial), [shrubs].
Stems

erect or ascending, 20–50 cm.

Leaves

1.3–5.5 × 1.2–2.5 cm;

sessile;

blade lanceolate to narrowly oblong, base rounded or truncate, sometimes cuneate, margins sparsely denticulate, apex acuminate to, sometimes, rounded.

alternate or basal;

stipules absent.

Flowers

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 2–3 mm;

sepals 2.5–4.5 mm;

petals yellow, with 1 red dot basally, 4–7 mm, sometimes with a tooth arising from emarginate apex; episepalous filaments 4-pored;

s2–6 mm, epipetalous filaments 0.8–1.6 mm, anthers 0.4–1 mm, 25–60% of pollen grains tyle 3–6 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

straight or 1.5–2+-coiled spiral, subterete in living material, obscurely 4-angled when dry, 15–20 × 1.3–2 mm.

Seeds

1.3–1.5 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

= 42.

Camissoniopsis luciae

Onagraceae tribe Onagreae

Phenology Flowering Apr–May(–Jul).
Habitat Openings in chaparral.
Elevation 300–1400 m. (1000–4600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
Discussion

Camissoniopsis luciae is known from the Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County, and scattered southward to San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties. P. H. Raven (1969) determined C. luciae to be self-compatible and primarily autogamous. The species is a hexaploid that parallels the widespread diploid C. hirtella in the variable notching of its petals. Presumably, it has been derived from the tetraploid C. intermedia (2n = 28) and the diploid C. hirtella (2n = 14), but it is rather easily separated from both by the absence of glandular hairs in the inflorescence, relatively large flowers, and pollen characteristics.

(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 > Camissoniopsis Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Sibling taxa
C. bistorta, C. cheiranthifolia, C. confusa, C. guadalupensis, C. hardhamiae, C. hirtella, C. ignota, C. intermedia, C. lewisii, C. micrantha, C. pallida, C. robusta
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms Camissonia luciae
Name authority (P. H. Raven) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 205. (2007) Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 89. (1827)
Web links