Chorizanthe pungens |
Chorizanthe stellulata |
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Monterey spineflower |
starlet spineflower, starlite spineflower |
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Habit | Plants prostrate to ascending or erect, 0.5–2(–2.5) × 0.5–10 dm, grayish-villous. | Plants erect, 0.5–2.5(–3) × 0.5–3 dm, hirsute. | ||||
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 0.1–0.5 cm; blade narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 0.5–2 × 0.8–2(–2.2) cm, hirsute. |
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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. |
cymose, dichotomously branched throughout, white to greenish or reddish; bracts usually 2, similar to leaves at proximal nodes only reduced, typically with whorl of 3–5 ca. midstem, short-petiolate, becoming linear and aciculate at distal nodes, acerose, 0.5–2(–3) cm × 10–30(–40) mm, awns absent. |
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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. |
congested in small bracteated terminal clusters of 2–4 at node of dichotomies, tannish, cylindric, slightly ventricose basally, 3–4 mm, with conspicuous, white, broad, membranous margins typically extending up tooth to awn, finely corrugated, hispid at least along ridges, otherwise sparsely pubescent; teeth spreading, equal, 1–1.5 mm, awns straight, 0.5–1 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. |
exserted; perianth cream to creamy white or rose, cylindric, 4–4.5(–5) mm, slightly pubescent abaxially; tepals connate 2/3 their length, monomorphic, obovate, obcordate to 2-lobed apically, sometimes slightly irregular but not distinctly erose; stamens 9, slightly exserted; filaments distinct, 4–5 mm, glabrous; anthers pink to red, oblong, 0.5–0.6 mm. |
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Achenes | dark brown, globose-lenticular, 2–2.5 mm. |
light brown, globose-lenticular, 3.5–4.5 mm. |
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2n | = 38, 40, 44. |
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Chorizanthe pungens |
Chorizanthe stellulata |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jul. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and chaparral communities, oak-pine woodlands | |||||
Elevation | 30-900 m (100-3000 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.) |
Chorizanthe stellulata can be locally common in the foothills bordering the Central Valley from Shasta County south to Stanislaus County on the western side, and to Tulare County on the eastern side. Post-flowering specimens of starlite spineflower and Douglas’s spineflower are sometimes difficult to distinguish. The margins of the involucre in the former are always white; those of C. douglasii are purple. (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. 452. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
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Name authority | Bentham: Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 419, plate 19, fig. 2. (1836) | Bentham: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle., Prodr. 14: 26. (1856) | ||||
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