Hollisteria
Hollisteria lanata
false spikeflower, hollisteria
false spikeflower, false spineflower
arising directly from the root, spreading to decumbent or prostrate, solid, not fistulose or disarticulating into ringlike segments, tomentose.
deciduous (basal) or persistent (cauline), basal and cauline, alternate;
petiole indistinct at proximal node, absent at distal nodes;
blade oblanceolate (proximal) or elliptic to ovate (distal), margins entire, apex mucronate.
basal blades (1.5–)2–5(–6) × (0.2–)0.3–0.7(–0.9) cm;
cauline blades (0.5–)1–3.5 × (0.1–)0.3–0.8(–1) cm.
terminal, cymose, distally uniparous due to suppression of secondaries, each node bearing a flower;
branches dichotomous, not brittle or disarticulating into segments, round, tomentose;
bracts 3, typically situated at base of a cauline leaf and hidden by it, connate basally, linear to linear-lanceolate, somewhat foliaceous or scalelike, awned, thinly pubescent to densely tomentose.
bracts dimorphic, lateral 2 obvious, 2–5 mm, thinly pubescent, central 1 obscured, 1–2(–3) mm, densely tomentose.
absent.
1 per involucral cluster, sessile or pedicellate;
perianth yellowish, broadly campanulate when open, tubular when closed, densely tomentose abaxially;
tepals 6, connate proximally, monomorphic, mucronate apically;
stamens 6 or 9;
filaments basally adnate, glabrous;
anthers yellow, oval to oblong.
perianth 1.5–2 mm.
included, brown to black, not winged, 3-gonous, glabrous.
1.7–2 mm.
embryo curved.
bracts obvious, in whorl of 3(–4), linear to lanceolate, awned.
bracts 2 mm, densely tomentose.
= 21.
= 42.
Hollisteria
Hollisteria lanata
Species 1.
Hollisteria is the only member of subtribe Hollisteriineae H. Gross. This view differs from that presented by J. L. Reveal and C. B. Hardham (1989), who included Chorizanthe and its relatives also in Hollisteriineae. In an unpublished thesis, Adrienne Russell (pers. comm.) has suggested that Hollisteria is more closely related to Eriogonum than to Chorizanthe. Reveal and Hardham noted that the transfer of Hollisteria from a place near Eriogonum to a position with Chorizanthe was done with “some trepidation.” There is no obvious place within Eriogonum subg. Ganysma to suggest as a point of origin for Hollisteria. Then, too, there is no place within Chorizanthe that one can comfortably suggest as such a point. By referring Hollisteria to its own subtribe, one acknowledges a relationship to Eriogonum, and recognizes that the single flower and base chromosome number of x = 21 are conditions unknown in the whole of Eriogonineae, although both features are common in Chorizanthineae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Hollisteria lanata is encountered occasionally in the San Joaquin Valley and the adjacent coastal ranges and eastward in the Transverse Ranges to Kern and Tulare counties. Plants are only rarely locally common.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
