The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Howell's horkelia, silky horkelia

dusky, dusky horkelia, horkelia, pinewoods, pinewoods horkelia, pink pinwheels, tawny horkelia

Habit Plants ± tufted, silvery.
Stems

ascending to erect, 1.5–4.5 dm, hairs 1 mm proximally, glands absent or sparse distally.

Basal leaves

± cylindric to weakly planar, 3–10 × 0.3–1.2 cm, densely sericeous, often villous on margins apically;

stipules usually entire or forked, rarely pinnately divided into linear lobes;

leaflets (8–)10–20 per side, ± overlapping, elliptic to flabellate, 2–8 × 1–4 mm, 1/2–2/3 as wide as long, divided ± 1/2+ to midrib into (0–)2–4 elliptic lobes 1–2 mm wide, these not restricted to apex.

(3–)4–20(–40) × (1–)1.5–4(–7) cm;

leaflets narrowly cuneate to obovate to flabellate, 5–30(–35) × 2–20(–30) mm, 1/3 as wide to wider than long, divided into linear or oblanceolate to obovate teeth or lobes, sparsely to ± densely short-villous or hirsute, sometimes glabrate.

Cauline leaves

(2 or)3–5;

stipules 3–8 mm, entire or shallowly 1–2-toothed.

1–5(or 6).

Inflorescences

open, flowers arranged individually and/or in non-capitate glomerules.

Pedicels

1–4 mm.

Flowers

10 mm diam.;

epicalyx bractlets linear-lanceolate, 1.5–3 × 0.5 mm, ± 2/3 length of sepals;

hypanthium 1–1.5 × 2–3 mm, ± 1/2 to as deep as wide, interior glabrous;

sepals spreading to reflexed, abaxially green to reddish or purplish, 2–4 mm;

petals white to pink or red-veined, narrowly obcordate, 3–4.5(–7) × 2–3 mm, apex ± emarginate;

filaments 0.5–1.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm, anthers 0.4–0.6 mm;

carpels 2–6;

styles 1.5–2 mm.

5–12 mm diam.;

epicalyx bractlets 1–3 mm, 1/2 length of to nearly equal to sepals;

hypanthium 1–3 × 2–4 mm, 1/2 to nearly as deep as wide;

sepals spreading to ± reflexed, narrowly to broadly lanceolate, (1.7–)2–4(–4.5) mm;

petals 2–6(–6.5) mm;

filaments 0.2–1.5 × (0.2–)0.4–0.6(–1) mm, anthers 0.4–0.6 mm;

styles 0.9–1.5 mm.

Achenes

brown, 2–2.5 mm, smooth.

brown.

2n

= 28.

Horkelia sericata

Horkelia fusca

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Chaparral, oak-conifer woodlands, on serpentine-derived soil
Elevation 100–1200 m (300–3900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; ID; NV; OR; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

D. D. Keck (1938) expanded the circumscription of Horkelia sericata to encompass the plants segregated here as H. howellii, on the grounds that intergradation is too extensive to justify taxonomic recognition of the extremes. In this evaluation, however, most collections can be unequivocally divided between plants with compact silvery-sericeous leaves with entire or forked stipules (H. sericata), and plants with larger, greener leaves and pinnately divided stipules (H. howellii). It is not known if the chromosome count provided by P. A. Munz (1959) was derived from H. howellii or H. sericata.

As here circumscribed, Horkelia sericata is a localized taxon known only from Curry County, Oregon, and the Gasquet serpentine area in adjacent Del Norte County, California.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Varieties 7 (7 in the flora).

Horkelia fusca represents the primary radiation of the genus beyond the California Floristic Province. Within California, H. fusca occurs in the Sierra Nevada and mountains of northern California, and it is the only representative of the genus extending beyond California and Oregon into Washington, Idaho, Nevada [with the possible exception of H. tridentata (10e. sect. Tridentatae) in Washoe County], and, questionably, Wyoming.

As here circumscribed, Horkelia fusca is the most diverse, most widely distributed species in the genus, with significant additional work needed to fully elucidate its variation patterns. The treatment presented here differs from that of D. D. Keck (1938) and B. Ertter (1993d) in using the rank variety instead of subspecies, circumscribing var. capitata more narrowly, and transferring the application of var. pseudocapitata from what is here called var. brownii to the bulk of what had been subsp. capitata (Lindley) D. D. Keck (B. Ertter and J. L. Reveal 2007).

There are two types of basal leaves in plants of Horkelia fusca. The ephemeral early-season leaves have leaflets that tend to be broadly cuneate-obovate, shallowly toothed, densely glandular but otherwise sparsely hairy, and deeply veined. The leaf features described below are drawn from the more persistent, mid season leaves that predominate at peak flowering and differ more strongly among varieties.

Petals of first-formed flowers are often larger than average; end-of-season petals can be smaller than average.

Although Montana is sometimes included in the range of Horkelia fusca, such references are based only on potential occurrence (W. E. Booth and J. C. Wright 1959).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Leaflets divided ± 1/2–3/4+ to midrib
→ 2
1. Leaflets divided less than 1/2 to midrib
→ 4
2. Inflorescences usually with flowers arranged individually; sw Oregon.
var. filicoides
2. Inflorescences composed of 3–20-flowered glomerules, (flowers rarely arranged individually in var. fusca); ne California, nw Oregon, sw Washington
→ 3
3. Leaflets divided ± 1/2 to midrib, 5–18(–20) × 4–15 mm; petals 3–5 mm; filaments 0.5–1.3 mm, longer than wide; nw Oregon, sw Washington.
var. fusca
3. Leaflets divided 3/4+ to midrib, 5–10(–15) × 2–10(–20) mm; petals 2–3(–4) mm; filaments 0.2–0.5 mm, wider than long; ne California.
var. tenella
4. Leaves grayish, surfaces often obscured, ± densely short-villous; leaflets narrowly to broadly cuneate, usually 1/3–1/2 as wide as long; ne California, adjacent Oregon and Nevada.
var. brownii
4. Leaves green, surfaces not obscured, ± short-hirsute, villous, or glabrate; leaflets cuneate to broadly obovate, 1/2 to wider than long; California to Washington, Idaho, Wyoming
→ 5
5. Inflorescences dark reddish purple, densely congested, bracts acuminate-lobed, obscuring pedicels and flowers even at maturity, glandular hairs usually conspicuously red-septate; epicalyx bractlets (2–)3.5–5(–6) mm; cauline leaves 3–6, leaflets of proximalmost 3–5 per side; ne Oregon, se Washington, n Idaho.
var. capitata
5. Inflorescences green to reddish purple, congested to open, bracts acute-lobed, not obscuring pedicels and flowers at maturity, glandular hairs not or obscurely red-septate; epicalyx bractlets 1–3.5(–4) mm; cauline leaves 1–4(or 5), leaflets of proximalmost 2–4(or 5) per side; Cascade-Sierra axis of Oregon, California, e to Wyoming and n Nevada
→ 6
6. Petals (3–)4–6 mm; leaflets 10–30(–35) × (5–)10–20(–25) mm; epicalyx bractlets 2–3.5(–4) mm; mountains in and bordering n Intermountain Region, ne California, n Nevada, se Oregon, s Idaho.
var. pseudocapitata
6. Petals 2–4.5(–6.5) mm; leaflets 5–15(–20) × (2–)5–10(–15) mm; epicalyx bractlets 1–2(–3) mm; Sierra Nevada, California and Nevada, to Cascade Ranges, c Oregon, and mountains of c Idaho, adjacent Wyoming.
var. parviflora
Source FNA vol. 9, p. 265. FNA vol. 9, p. 259.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Horkelia > sect. Tridentatae Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Horkelia > sect. Capitatae
Sibling taxa
H. bolanderi, H. californica, H. clevelandii, H. congesta, H. cuneata, H. daucifolia, H. fusca, H. hendersonii, H. hispidula, H. howellii, H. marinensis, H. parryi, H. rydbergii, H. tenuiloba, H. tridentata, H. truncata, H. tularensis, H. wilderae, H. yadonii
H. bolanderi, H. californica, H. clevelandii, H. congesta, H. cuneata, H. daucifolia, H. hendersonii, H. hispidula, H. howellii, H. marinensis, H. parryi, H. rydbergii, H. sericata, H. tenuiloba, H. tridentata, H. truncata, H. tularensis, H. wilderae, H. yadonii
Subordinate taxa
H. fusca var. brownii, H. fusca var. capitata, H. fusca var. filicoides, H. fusca var. fusca, H. fusca var. parviflora, H. fusca var. pseudocapitata, H. fusca var. tenella
Synonyms Potentilla sericata Potentilla douglasii
Name authority S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 20: 364. (1885) Lindley: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 23: plate 1997. (1837)
Web links