Clarkia epilobioides
Clarkia gracilis
canyon clarkia, willow-herb clarkia
graceful clarkia, slender clarkia, slender godetia
erect, 20–70 cm, sparsely puberulent.
erect, to 90 cm, glabrous or puberulent.
petiole to 7 mm;
blade linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, 1.5–2.5 cm.
petiole to 11 mm;
blade linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2–7 cm.
open racemes, sometimes few-branched, axis recurved at tip in bud;
buds pendent.
racemes, axis recurved at tip in bud;
buds pendent.
usually cleistogamous;
floral tube 1–3 mm;
sepals reflexed together to 1 side or in pairs;
corolla bowl-shaped, petals fading pink, obovate;
stamens 8, unequal, anthers white or cream, outer ones larger than inner.
floral tube 1.5–10 mm;
corolla bowl-shaped, petals pink to lavender or light purple, often lighter toward base, unspotted or with red spot near middle or base, obovate or obdeltate, 6–40 mm;
stamens 8, subequal;
ovary 4-grooved, puberulent;
stigma exserted or not beyond anthers.
10–30 mm;
pedicel 5–11 mm.
25–50 mm, usually wider distally;
pedicel 0–10 mm.
brown, 0.5–1 mm, scaly, crest inconspicuous.
brown or mottled with dark spots, 1.5–2 mm, scaly, crest 0.1 mm.
= 18.
Clarkia epilobioides
Clarkia gracilis
Clarkia epilobioides is known from south-central Arizona in Gila, Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties, and widely in west-central and southwestern California and adjacent Baja California, Mexico. In California, it occurs from Contra Costa and San Mateo counties in the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego County in the south, including most of the Channel Islands.
Clarkia epilobioides is modally self-pollinating, and up to half of its flowers do not open, yet set a full complement of seeds (H. Lewis and M. E. Lewis 1955). However, outcrossing does occur, and C. epilobioides is one of the parents of the tetraploid species C. similis, from which it differs by having white, unflecked petals; it is also one of the parents of the tetraploid C. delicata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).
Clarkia gracilis is a tetraploid derived from C. amoena and an unknown, presumably extinct, species related to C. arcuata and C. lassenensis. Clarkia gracilis is readily distinguished from C. amoena by the axis of the inflorescence in bud, which is not recurved in C. amoena; it is distinguished from C. arcuata and C. lassenensis by its four rather than eight-grooved ovary.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stigmas not exserted beyond anthers; petals 6–23 mm. | subsp. gracilis |
1. Stigmas exserted beyond anthers; petals20–40 mm. | → 2 |
2. Petals with red spot near mid blade, base of blades white. | subsp. sonomensis |
2. Petals unspotted, base of blades red or bright red. | → 3 |
3. Petals 20–30 mm. | subsp. tracyi |
3. Petals 30–40 mm. | subsp. albicaulis |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
