Chorizanthe pungens |
Chorizanthe spinosa |
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Monterey spineflower |
Mojave spineflower |
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Habit | Plants prostrate to ascending or erect, 0.5–2(–2.5) × 0.5–10 dm, grayish-villous. | Plants spreading to prostrate, 0.3–0.8(–1) × 0.5–8 dm. | ||||
Leaves | basal; petiole (0.5–)1–3(–4) cm; blade oblanceolate, (0.5–)1–5(–7) × (0.3–)0.4–0.7(–1) cm, villous. |
basal; petiole 0.5–2 cm; blade (0.3–)0.5–1.5(–2) × (3–)5–10(–12) mm, thinly pubescent adaxially, more densely so to tomentose abaxially. |
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Inflorescences | rather dense with secondary branches suppressed, grayish; bracts 2, similar to leaf blades at proximal nodes only reduced, short-petiolate, becoming linear and aciculate at distal nodes, acerose, 0.5–7 cm × 2–7 mm, awns 0.5–1.2 mm. |
greenish to reddish, mostly flat-topped and open to dense; bracts 3, whorled, short-petiolate, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acerose, 0.5–1.5 cm × 3–8(–10) mm, awns straight, 1–3.5 mm. |
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Involucres | 1, grayish, cylindric, often ventricose basally, 2–2.5(–3) mm, with distinct, white to pink or purple, scarious margins extending nearly full length of awn, corrugate, villous abaxially; teeth spreading, equal, 0.5–1.5 mm; awns uncinate with longer ones 2–3 mm and alternating with shorter (1–1.5 mm) ones. |
usually congested in small terminal clusters of 1–3 at node of dichotomies, (4–)5-ribbed, weakly 3-angled, 2–2.5 mm, not corrugate, densely canescent; teeth (4–)5, essentially erect with longer, prominent, and thickened anterior one 2–4 mm, with straight awn 1–2.5 mm, remaining teeth smaller, 0.5–1 mm, with straight awns 0.3–0.8 mm. |
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Flowers | exserted; perianth bicolored with floral tube white and tepals white to rose, cylindric, 2–3.5 mm, pubescent abaxially; tepals connate less than 1/4 their length, monomorphic, obovate to oblong, acute to truncate and erose apically; stamens 9, slightly exserted; filaments distinct, 2–3 mm, glabrous; anthers cream to rose, ovate, 0.3–0.4 mm. |
1, exserted; perianth, cylindric, 2.5–3.5 mm; tepals connate 1/2–2/3 their length, dimorphic, entire, those of outer whorl spreading, broadly obovate and rounded apically, those of inner whorl erect, narrowly oblanceolate, 1/2 length of outer ones, acute apically; stamens slightly exserted; filaments 2.5–3 mm, glabrous; anthers yellowish, oblong, 0.5–0.7 mm. |
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Achenes | dark brown, globose-lenticular, 2–2.5 mm. |
2.5–3 mm. |
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2n | = (40), 44, (46). |
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Chorizanthe pungens |
Chorizanthe spinosa |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jul. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, saltbush communities | |||||
Elevation | 600-1300 m (2000-4300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
G. J. Goodman (1934) referred Chorizanthe spinosa to Eriogonella, but C. spinosa and C. membranacea, the type of Eriogonella, are well isolated from one another, and both are well removed from the remainder of the annual spineflowers. The Mojave spineflower is local and uncommon from southeastern Kern and southern Inyo counties, south into adjacent northeastern Los Angeles and northwestern San Bernardino counties to Antelope and Lucerne valleys. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 453. | FNA vol. 5, p. 449. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
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Synonyms | Eriogonella spinosa | |||||
Name authority | Bentham: Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 419, plate 19, fig. 2. (1836) | S. Watson: in W. H. Brewer et al., Bot. California 2: 481. (1880) | ||||
Web links |