Flora of North America species comparison

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Clarkia rhomboidea

common clarkia, diamond clarkia, diamond fairyfan, forest clarkia, rhombic petal clarkia, rhomboid farewell-to-spring, tongue clarkia
Stems

erect, to 100 cm, puberulent.
Leaves

petiole 5–25 mm;

blade lanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 1–6 cm.
Inflorescences

open racemes, axis in bud recurved 1–3 nodes distal to open flowers;

buds pendent, narrowly obovoid, tip acute to obtuse, often curved to one side.
Flowers

floral tube 1–3 mm;

sepals reflexed individually;

corolla rotate, petals pinkish lavender, often with darker flecks, narrowly to broadly obovate or rhombic, sometimes ± 3-lobed, 6–12(–14) × 3–7 mm;

stamens 8, subequal, subtended by ciliate scales, pollen blue-gray;

ovary shallowly 4-grooved;

stigma not or rarely exserted beyond anthers.
Capsules

10–25 mm;

pedicel 1–4 mm.
Seeds

brown, gray, or mottled, 1–1.5 mm, scaly-echinate, crest 0.1 mm, inconspicuous.
2n

= 24.

Clarkia rhomboidea
Phenology Flowering May–Sep.
Habitat Yellow-pine forests, woodlands.
Elevation 0–3000 m. (0–9800 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Clarkia rhomboidea is a tetraploid derived from C. mildrediae and C. virgata or a closely related species. The six diploid species in sect. Myxocarpa closely related to C. rhomboidea (C. australis, C. borealis, C. mildrediae, C. mosquinii, C. stellata, and C. virgata) are California endemics with relatively small areas of distribution, whereas C. rhomboidea occurs throughout much of the western United States and is morphologically much more variable. Clarkia rhomboidea characteristically has relatively small, self-pollinating flowers with the stigma in contact with the anthers. Among the diploid species only C. stellata has similar small, self-pollinating flowers but is distinguished by yellow pollen and petals with a shallowly 3-lobed blade that is not flecked. Rare populations of C. rhomboidea have relatively large flowers with the stigma exserted beyond the anthers. When they occur within the geographical range of the outcrossing diploid species, they may be difficult to distinguish without determining chromosome number.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Clarkia > sect. Myxocarpa
Sibling taxa
C. affinis, C. amoena, C. arcuata, C. australis, C. biloba, C. borealis, C. bottae, C. breweri, C. concinna, C. cylindrica, C. davyi, C. delicata, C. dudleyana, C. epilobioides, C. exilis, C. franciscana, C. gracilis, C. heterandra, C. imbricata, C. jolonensis, C. lassenensis, C. lewisii, C. lingulata, C. mildrediae, C. modesta, C. mosquinii, C. prostrata, C. pulchella, C. purpurea, C. rostrata, C. rubicunda, C. similis, C. speciosa, C. springvillensis, C. stellata, C. tembloriensis, C. unguiculata, C. virgata, C. williamsonii, C. xantiana
Name authority Douglas in W. J. Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 214. (1832)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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