Chorizanthe cuspidata |
Chorizanthe corrugata |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
San Francisco spineflower |
wrinkled spineflower |
|||||
Habit | Plants decumbent to prostrate or ascending, 0.5–2(–2.5) × 0.5–10 dm, villous. | Plants erect, 0.3–1.5 × 0.3–1 dm, thinly tomentose. | ||||
Leaves | basal; petiole (0.5–)1–3 cm; blade oblanceolate, (0.5–)1–5 × (0.3–)0.4–0.7(–1) cm, villous. |
basal or nearly so; petiole 0.5–2(–3) cm; blade round-ovate, (0.5–)0.8–1.5(–2) × (0.3–)0.5–1.5(–2) cm, thinly floccose to tomentose. |
||||
Inflorescences | rather dense with secondary branches suppressed, greenish to reddish; bracts 2, similar to proximal leaf blades only reduced, short-petiolate, becoming narrowly elliptic to linear-lanceolate and aciculate at distal nodes, acerose, 0.5–5 cm × 2–7 mm, awns 0.5–1.2 mm. |
with involucres in small clusters 0.5–1 cm diam., green to tan or reddish; bracts 2, linear to linear-lanceolate, acicular, 2–7 cm × 1–2.5 mm, awns slightly curved, 0.5–1 mm. |
||||
Involucres | 1, greenish, cylindric, often ventricose basally, 1–3 mm, without scarious margins or if so then white to pink, thin, and restricted to basal portions of teeth, corrugate, villous abaxially; teeth spreading, equal, 0.5–2 mm; awns uncinate or straight with longer ones 2–3 mm and anterior one mostly 2.5–3 mm, these alternating with shorter 1–1.5(–1.7) mm ones. |
1, green to tan, cylindric, 3-angled but 3-ribbed, 3–4 mm, markedly transverse corrugate, glabrate; teeth 3, equal, 2–4.5 mm; awns uncinate, 0.6–1 mm. |
||||
Flowers | included to slightly exserted; perianth bicolored with floral tube white and tepals white to rose, cylindric, 2–3 mm, pubescent abaxially; tepals connate less than 1/4 their length, monomorphic, oblong, truncate to 3-lobed and distinctly cuspidate apically; stamens 9, slightly exserted; filaments distinct, 2–3 mm, glabrous; anthers cream to rose, narrowly oblong, 0.3–0.4 mm. |
1, included to slightly exserted; perianth white, cylindric, 2–2.5 mm, thinly pubescent abaxially; tepals connate ca. 2/3 their length, monomorphic, oblong, acute, entire apically; stamens 6, slightly exserted; filaments distinct, 0.8–1 mm, glabrous; anthers cream, ovate, 0.4–0.5 mm. |
||||
Achenes | light brown, globose-lenticular, 2–3 mm. |
brown, lenticular, 2.5–3 mm. |
||||
2n | = 38. |
|||||
Chorizanthe cuspidata |
Chorizanthe corrugata |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering Feb–May. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, creosote bush, and sagebrush communities | |||||
Elevation | -70-1000 m (-200-3300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA
|
AZ; CA; NV; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
|
||||
Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Chorizanthe corrugata is found mainly in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The narrow, transversely corrugated involucral tube is diagnostic. Some anomalous flowers with four or eight stamens have been seen but this condition was always associated with other flowers bearing the normal number. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 454. | FNA vol. 5, p. 468. | ||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Ptelosepala | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Acanthogonum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | C. pungens var. cuspidata | Acanthogonum corrugatum | ||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 379. (1882) | (Torrey) Torrey & A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 8: 198. (1870) | ||||
Web links |