Chorizanthe leptotheca |
Chorizanthe brevicornu |
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Peninsular spineflower, Ramona spineflower |
brittle spine flower |
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Habit | Plants erect to spreading, 0.5–3(–3.5) × 0.5–3(–5) dm, thinly pubescent. | Plants spreading to erect, 0.5–3(–5) × 0.5–3 dm, thinly pubescent, often with appressed hairs, infrequently somewhat strigose or glabrate. | ||||
Leaves | basal; petiole 1–3(–4) cm; blade oblong to oblong-ovate, 0.5–2(–3) × 0.3–0.5(–0.7) cm, thinly pubescent adaxially, usually densely tomentose adaxially. |
basal; petiole 0.5–2 cm; blade oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or spatulate, (1–)1.5–3(–4) × 0.1–1 cm, pubescent. |
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Inflorescences | mostly flat-topped and openly branched, usually reddish; bracts soon deciduous, 2, occasionally leaflike at proximal nodes and similar to proximal leaf blades only more reduced, short-petiolate, ovate, 0.3–0.4 cm × 2–3 mm, otherwise sessile, linear and acicular, often acerose, 0.1–0.3 cm × 0.7–1 mm, awns straight, 0.5–1 mm. |
green; bracts 2, similar to proximal leaf blades only more reduced, 0.3–1(–1.5) cm × 1–2.5 mm, becoming sessile and scalelike at distal nodes, linear, acicular, awns 0.2–0.5 mm. |
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Involucres | in congested clusters with 1 at node of dichotomies, reddish, cylindric, not ventricose, 3–4 mm, not corrugate, without scarious or membranous margins, thinly pubescent; teeth spreading, unequal, 0.7–1.5 mm with longer of 3 longest ones more erect than 3 other shorter and less-prominent ones, awns uncinate, 0.5–1 mm. |
1, green, 3–5 mm, not corrugate, thinly strigose; teeth divergent, 0.4–1.2 mm; awns uncinate, 0.2–0.5 mm. |
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Flowers | long-exserted; perianth rose to red, infrequently with white lobes, cylindric, 4.5–6 mm, pubescent; tepals connate ca. 1/2 their length, dimorphic or sometimes monomorphic, narrowly oblanceolate, apex rounded, those of outer whorl slightly broader and occasionally longer than those of inner whorl; stamens 9, mostly included; filaments distinct, 4–6 mm, glabrous; anthers pink to red, ovate to oblong, 0.5–0.6 mm. |
included; perianth greenish white to white or pale yellowish white, cylindric, 2–4 mm; tepals connate 3/4 their length, monomorphic, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, acute, entire apically; stamens slightly exserted; filaments distinct, 2–3.5 mm, glabrous; anthers white to pale yellow, ovate, 0.3–0.4 mm. |
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Achenes | brown, lenticular, 3–4 mm. |
dark brown, lenticular, 3–4 mm. |
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2n | = 38. |
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Chorizanthe leptotheca |
Chorizanthe brevicornu |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, grassland and chaparral communities, pine-oak woodlands | |||||
Elevation | (300-)600-1600(-1900) m ((1000-)2000-5200(-6200) ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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AZ; CA; ID; NV; OR; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Chorizanthe leptotheca is found in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains of San Bernardino County southward along the eastern edge of the Santa Ana Mountains, and through the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains of Riverside County into the mountains of central San Diego County. The species is also found in north-central Baja California. Ramona spineflower is clearly related to Chorizanthe staticoides, but that species occurs to the west of the range of C. leptotheca and the two are not known to be sympatric. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Chorizanthe brevicornu has stems and branches that easily disarticulate at the nodes. Dried specimens often are reduced to a mere jumble without careful handling. The vegetative fragments will not regenerate new plants, but the involucres (each with a single flower bearing a single achene) easily disarticulate from the parent plant, and with the aid of the awns on the teeth of the involucre, may be readily distributed. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 463. | FNA vol. 5, p. 469. | ||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Ptelosepala | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Fragile | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Goodman: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 21: 61. (1934) | Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 177. (1859) | ||||
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