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soft bird's-beak

Stems

erect or spreading, 10–40 cm, puberulent or hispid, hairs glandular and eglandular.

Leaf

blades narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 5–30 × 2–10 mm, margins entire or 7-lobed, lateral veins conspicuous.

Spikes

2–15 cm;

bracts sometimes purple distally, lanceolate to ovate, 15–25 mm, margins pinnately 3–7-lobed.

Flowers

calyx 15–20 mm;

corolla greenish white, white, or pale yellow, 15–20 mm, lobes 5–7 mm, often marked with dark red (especially toward base);

stamens 2, each with 2 pollen sacs;

staminodes 2.

Capsules

narrowly ovoid, 6–10 mm.

Seeds

20–30, dark brown, ovoid to reniform, 1–3 mm, without abaxial crest.

Chloropyron molle

Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

The coastal and inland subspecies intergrade.

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

Key
1. Branches from distal to base; seeds 2–3 mm; corolla tubes densely tomentose.
subsp. molle
1. Branches from near base; seeds 1–1.5 mm; corolla tubes sparsely tomentose.
subsp. hispidum
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 668.
Parent taxa Orobanchaceae > Chloropyron
Sibling taxa
C. maritimum, C. palmatum, C. tecopense
Subordinate taxa
C. molle subsp. hispidum, C. molle subsp. molle
Synonyms Cordylanthus mollis
Name authority (A. Gray) A. Heller: Muhlenbergia 3: 134. (1907)
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