Chorizanthe clevelandii |
Chorizanthe subg. Amphietes |
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Cleveland's spineflower |
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Habit | Plants spreading to decumbent, 0.2–0.8(–1) × 0.5–5(–7) dm, appressed-pubescent. | Plants prostrate to spreading or erect, mostly thinly pubescent. |
Stems | sometimes disarticulating at each node. |
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Leaves | basal; petiole 0.5–2 mm; blade oblanceolate, 0.5–1.5(–2) × 0.3–0.6(–0.8) cm, thinly pubescent. |
blades linear to lanceolate, obovate, round, or spatulate. |
Inflorescences | with involucres in small, open clusters 0.5–1.5 cm diam., greenish or grayish to reddish; bracts 2, sessile, usually leaflike, oblanceolate to elliptic, 0.5–1.5 cm × 1.5–5 mm, gradually reduced and becoming scalelike at distal nodes, linear, aciculate, acerose, 0.4–1 cm × 1–2(–3) mm, awns straight, 1–3 mm. |
bracts mostly 2, opposite, scalelike or if leaflike then similar to basal leaves only reduced, occasionally deciduous in early anthesis, with or without awns. |
Involucres | 3–10, grayish to reddish, urceolate, slightly ventricose basally, 3–3.5 mm, slightly corrugate, without scarious or membranous margins, densely pubescent; teeth widely spreading to divergent, unequal, 0.3–0.6 mm or 3–6 mm; awns uncinate, unequal, with longer anterior one 1.5–2.5 mm, others spreading, 0.3–0.6 mm. |
cylindric to narrowly turbinate, campanulate, or urceolate, occasionally ventricose basally, 3-,5-, or 6-toothed, with or without membranous or scarious margins; teeth erect to spreading or divergent, connate at least 1/2 their length, typically shallow, mostly unequal, with alternating long and short awns, often with anterior one longest. |
Flowers | included or only slightly exserted; perianth bicolored with floral tube greenish white and tepals white, cylindric, 2.5–3 mm, sparsely pubescent; tepals connate 2/3 their length, dimorphic, linear-oblong, those of outer whorl spreading, 1.5 times longer than those of inner whorl, rounded, entire or emarginate to slightly 2-lobed apically, those of inner whorl erect, acute, entire to erose, slightly fimbriate or 2-lobed apically; stamens 3, included; filaments distinct, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous; anthers white, ovate, 0.3–0.4 mm. |
1(–2), white to pink or rose, maroon or purple, or yellow, thinly pubescent at least along midribs abaxially; stamens 3–9; filaments adnate at base of floral tube or faucially; filaments sometimes connate into short tube. |
Achenes | brown, globose-lenticular, 2.5–3 mm. |
brown, lenticular or globose-lenticular, or 3-gonous. |
Seeds | embryo straight or rarely curved. |
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2n | = 42. |
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Chorizanthe clevelandii |
Chorizanthe subg. Amphietes |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | |
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and chaparral communities, pine-oak woodlands | |
Elevation | 400-2000 m (1300-6600 ft) | |
Distribution |
CA
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w United States; nw Mexico; sw South America |
Discussion | Chorizanthe clevelandii is locally infrequent to common in scattered locations in the Coast Ranges from Mendocino and Lake counties south to Santa Barbara County, and across the Transverse and Tehachapi ranges of Ventura and Kern counties to the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County. It is the most widely distributed of the spineflowers endemic to California. The involucres stick to fur, clothing, and fingers, aiding dispersal of the achenes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 39 (31 in the flora). Most species of subg. Amphietes are found in California. Of the others, one is known only from southernmost Peru to central Chile (Chorizanthe commissuralis J. Rémy), while the rest are known only from Baja California, Mexico. Those include C. inequalis S. Stokes, C. turbinata Wiggins, C. mutabilis Brandegee, C. rosulenta Reveal, C. pulchella Brandegee, C. flava Brandegee, and C. interposita Goodman. The latter is the only member of sect. Clastoscapa, the only section of subg. Amphietes not found in our flora. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 460. | FNA vol. 5, p. 450. |
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Ptelosepala | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Parry: Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 4: 62. (1884) | Reveal & Hardham: Phytologia 66: 113. (1989) |
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