Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. kernensis
Cordylanthus eremicus
Kern bird's beak, Kern Plateau bird's-beak
desert 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.
bracts sparsely pilose or glabrous, lobes green to yellow-green distally, apex acute.
capitate spikes, 3–14-flowered;
bracts 5–10, 5–20 mm, margins 5–7-lobed, lobes purple or yellow-green, linear to filiform.
bracteoles 10–20 mm, margins entire.
calyx tube 1 mm;
corolla pink to lavender, lips pink;
filaments hairy distally.
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.
oblong-lanceoloid, 7–10 mm.
not papillate.
10–15, pale brown, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm, reticulate.
Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. kernensis
Cordylanthus eremicus
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.)
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.)
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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