Chylismia
Chylismia sect. Lignothera
beeblossom, browneyes
ascending to erect, usually branched.
basal and cauline, cauline often reduced, basal often forming well-developed rosette, alternate;
stipules absent; long-petiolate;
blade often pinnately (rarely bipinnately) lobed, sometimes unlobed, or lateral lobes greatly reduced or absent, terminal lobe usually large, margins usually regularly or irregularly dentate to serrate, sometimes denticulate, serrulate, or entire, abaxial surface or margin with ± conspicuous, usually brown, oil cells.
racemes, erect or nodding.
bisexual, actinomorphic, buds usually erect, sometimes reflexed;
floral tube deciduous (with sepals, petals, and stamens after anthesis), with basal nectary;
sepals 4, reflexed singly;
petals 4, usually yellow or white, often fading orange-red, sometimes lavender or purple, rarely cream, often with 1+ red dots near base;
stamens usually 8, in 2 subequal series, rarely 4 in 1 series (usually in C. exilis), anthers versatile, pollen shed singly or in tetrads;
ovary 4-locular, stigma usually entire and capitate, rarely conical-peltate and ± 4-lobed, surface unknown, probably wet and non-papillate.
opening at sunset;
floral tube 4.5–40 mm;
petals yellow, without dots or flecks, fading brick red or orange;
pollen shed in tetrads.
a capsule, straight or slightly curved, subterete and clavate or oblong-cylindrical, regularly loculicidal;
pedicellate.
numerous, in 2 rows per locule, lenticular to narrowly ovoid to narrowly obovoid, finely pitted, with ± pronounced membranous margin when immature.
Chylismia
Chylismia sect. Lignothera
Species 16 (16 in the flora).
Chylismia is distinguished from other genera formerly included in Camissonia by straight to arcuate (never twisted or curled) capsules on distinct pedicels and seeds in 2 rows per locule. R. A. Levin et al. (2004) included only one species each from Camissonia sects. Chylismia and Lignothera; the two formed a moderately supported branch, which led W. L. Wagner et al. (2007) to recognize Chylismia as a distinct genus. Chylismia is strongly supported in a sister relationship to the realigned Oenothera. This clade is in turn sister to Eulobus. Reproductive features include: self-incompatible (C. brevipes, C. claviformis, C. multijuga, C. munzii, and probably C. confertiflora, C. eastwoodiae, and C. parryi; P. H. Raven 1962, 1969) or self-compatible; flowers diurnal, outcrossing and pollinated by mostly oligolectic bees or autogamous, or opening one to two hours before sunset (in one subspecies of C. claviformis and the two species of sect. Lignothera); the evening-opening subspecies of C. claviformis pollinated mostly by oligolectic bees and moths, C. cardiophylla mainly by small moths, and C. arenaria, with its long floral tubes, by hawkmoths (E. G. Linsley et al. 1963, 1963b, 1964). Most species are diploid (2n = 14) but there are occasional tetraploids (2n = 28); floating translocations are relatively common (Raven 1962, 1969).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 2 (2 in the flora).
Section Lignothera consists of two diploid (2n = 14) species (four taxa) that occur on rocky slopes and in washes in the Mojave and western Sonoran Deserts. Chylismia arenaria occurs from southeastern California into adjacent southwestern Arizona and barely to northern Sonora, Mexico; the more widespread C. cardiophylla occurs in that same region but also reaches to south-central Baja California, Mexico, farther east in Arizona, and north to the western and southern margins of Death Valley in Inyo County, California. P. H. Raven (1962) considered this group to be an early evolutionary offshoot within Camissonia. He revised his position (Raven 1969) to regard the late afternoon-opening flowers, pollen shed in tetrads, and semi-woody habit as specializations within Onagreae and in Camissonia, and, consequently, to regard sect. Lignothera as a derivative of sect. Chylismia and its long floral tubes an adaptation for hawkmoth pollination.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Floral tubes 0.4–9 mm; pollen shed singly; leaves basal and cauline, usually with well-developed basal rosettes, blades usually pinnately or bipinnately lobed, lateral lobes sometimes greatly reduced or absent; plants usually annual, sometimes perennial, rarely biennial. | sect. Chylismia |
1. Floral tubes 4.5–40 mm; pollen shed in tetrads; leaves cauline, blades unlobed; plants usually perennial, sometimes annual. | sect. Lignothera |
1. Floral tubes 4.5–14 mm; racemes congested; sepals 3–9 mm. | C. cardiophylla |
1. Floral tubes 18–40 mm; racemes open; sepals 8–15 mm. | C. arenaria |
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