Clarkia imbricata
Clarkia borealis
Vine Hill clarkia
northern clarkia
erect, to 60 cm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent.
erect, to 100 cm, puberulent.
petiole 0–2 mm;
blade lanceolate, 2–2.5 cm.
petiole 15–40 mm;
blade elliptic to ovate, 2–6 cm.
dense racemes, axis straight;
buds erect.
open racemes, axis recurved only at tip in bud, straight 4+ nodes distal to open flowers;
buds pendent, fusiform, base slightly swollen, tip acute.
floral tube 10–15 mm, conspicuously veined, lavender striate within;
sepals reflexed individually;
corolla bowl-shaped, petals lavender shading to white proximally, with large, wedge-shaped purplish red spot near apex, 20–25 mm;
stamens 8, subequal;
ovary 8-grooved, longer than adjacent internode;
stigma exserted beyond anthers.
floral tube 2–4 mm;
sepals reflexed individually;
corolla rotate, petals lavender-pink, often dark-flecked, obdeltate to suborbiculate, unlobed, 13–19 ×7–12 mm, length 1.6–2 times width;
stamens 8, subequal, subtended by ciliate scales, pollen blue-gray;
ovary shallowly 4-grooved, puberulent;
stigma exserted beyond anthers.
10–15 mm.
20–30 mm;
pedicel 0–3 mm.
brown or gray, 2 mm, scaly, crest 0.2 mm.
light brown or mottled with dark spots, 1.5–2.5 mm, minutely tuberculate, crest 0.2 mm.
= 16.
Clarkia imbricata
Clarkia borealis
Clarkia imbricata, known from only one small area of Sonoma County, is designated as rare by the California Native Plant Society, and is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants; it is a relict of a lineage with 2n = 16 that presumably contributed a genome to the tetraploid species C. davyi and the South American C. tenella.
Morphologically, Clarkia imbricata is most similar to C. speciosa, C. williamsonii, and some populations of C. purpurea. Clarkia imbricata can be distinguished from C. speciosa by the color pattern of the petals and from C. williamsonii and populations of C. purpurea with similar flower size and color pattern by its broader, ascending, overlapping leaves.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Clarkia borealis is closely related, and possibly ancestral, to C. mildrediae. The two species can be distinguished most readily by the degree of curvature of the inflorescence and the petal color.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Seeds 1.5–1.8 mm. | subsp. borealis |
1. Seeds 1.8–2.5 mm. | subsp. arida |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
