Cordylanthus eremicus
Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. kernensis
desert bird's-beak
Kern bird's beak, Kern Plateau bird's-beak
erect or ascending, 10–80 cm, puberulent, glabrescent.
puberulent, sometimes scabrous;
proximal 10–40 mm, margins 3–7-lobed, lobes 1 mm wide;
distal 5–25 × 1 mm, margins entire.
capitate spikes, 3–14-flowered;
bracts 5–10, 5–20 mm, margins 5–7-lobed, lobes purple or yellow-green, linear to filiform.
bracts sparsely pilose or glabrous, lobes green to yellow-green distally, apex acute.
bracteoles 10–20 mm, margins entire.
calyx 10–20 mm, tube 1–3 mm, apex entire or 2-fid, cleft 0–0.5 mm;
corolla pink to lavender-pink, usually spotted with purple, 10–20 mm, throat 4–6 mm diam., abaxial lip pink or yellow, 3–6 mm, shorter than and appressed to adaxial;
stamens 4, filaments hairy, fertile pollen sacs 2 per filament, equal.
calyx tube 1 mm;
corolla pink to lavender, lips pink;
filaments hairy distally.
oblong-lanceoloid, 7–10 mm.
10–15, pale brown, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm, reticulate.
not papillate.
Cordylanthus eremicus
Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. kernensis
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Cordylanthus eremicus is similar to C. wrightii, which also has relatively short, dense spikes and inflorescence bracts palmately three- to seven-lobed. Cordylanthus eremicus can be distinguished from C. wrightii by its gray to white hairs.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies kernensis is known from the Kern Plateau in Inyo and Tulare counties. It can resemble Cordylanthus ramosus, which has calyces without a tube and yellow, not pink, corollas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Bracts: lobes purple distally, apices rounded to retuse; calyx tubes 2–3 mm; filaments hairy throughout. | subsp. eremicus |
1. Bracts: lobes green to yellow-green distally, apices acute; calyx tubes 1 mm; filaments hairy distally. | subsp. kernensis |
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