Kopsiopsis hookeri
Kopsiopsis
as in ifbc, coast groundcone, Hooker's groundcone, poque, small ground-cone, Vancouver groundcone
ground-cone, poque
dark red-brown, purple, or yellow, 55–160 mm, slender, 5–17 mm diam.
erect, fleshy, glabrous.
tightly to loosely imbricate;
blade triangular-obovate or rhombic, 6–12 × 5–12 mm, margins finely erose, apex obtuse or ± acute.
cauline, alternate;
petiole absent;
blade stiffly chartaceous, margins entire or slightly erose.
compact racemes, 6–10 cm diam.;
bracts erect, sometimes spreading, purple or yellow, narrowly spatulate or lanceolate, 7–11(–14) × 6–10 mm, margins erose, frequently white-translucent, apex obtuse or acute, slightly rolled adaxially.
terminal, compact or open racemes;
bracts present.
0–1.5 mm;
bracteoles 2.
present;
bracteoles present, rarely absent.
dark purple, pink, or frequently yellow, 10–15 mm;
calyx cup 1–3 mm deep, lobes persistent, 2–4, attenuate or linear-subulate, equal to cup;
corolla lobe margins white, lavender, wine red, pink, or yellow, minutely ciliate, abaxial lip shorter than adaxial, lobes 3–5 mm, apex apiculate, adaxial lip margins inrolled;
filaments with tuft of hair at base, glabrous distally, anthers glabrous or sparsely villous after anthesis, included, base rounded, sterile appendage (connective) short;
style equal to or longer than stamens;
stigma obscurely 2- or 3-lobed;
carpels 3;
placentae 3.
perianth persistent;
sepals (0 or)2–5, calyx bilaterally symmetric, cup-shaped, lobes attenuate, linear-subulate, or filiform;
petals 5, corolla dark red, purple, or yellow, strongly bilabiate, funnelform, palatal folds absent, abaxial lobes 3, adaxial 2, adaxial lip ± galeate;
stamens 4, didynamous, included, filaments with tuft of hair at base, villous or glabrous distally;
staminode 0;
ovary 1-locular, placentation parietal;
stigma obscurely 2–4-lobed, crateriform.
3-valved.
dehiscence loculicidal.
1.5–2 mm.
100–500, light tan or brown, irregularly globular or ovoid to oblong-ellipsoid, prismatic, not or slightly flattened, wings absent.
bases 20–50 mm diam., surface finely tessellate.
Kopsiopsis hookeri
Kopsiopsis
Kopsiopsis hookeri is a coastal species parasitic on Gaultheria shallon (Ericaceae) and confined to the range of the host species. It has been reported rarely on Alnus, Arbutus, and Arctostaphylos. Reports on Pinus are clearly spurious. It is often confused with K. strobilacea because of their close morphological similarity, but K. hookeri is a much smaller plant.
The range of Kopsiopsis hookeri is from southern Oregon and northwestern California to the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) in British Columbia, with apparently disjunct populations in isolated locations in California. A few historic collections at CAS and UC from southern California are morphologically indistinguishable from typical K. hookeri, indicating that this taxon may have once occurred south of its present distributional boundary. Populations represented by specimen records from Marin (1925, 1944, 1958), Mendocino (1966), and Monterey (1957) counties may still be extant and indicate the need for additional studies to determine the current range of the species. A single specimen from Los Angeles County may be mislabeled, as this area is outside the range of the host taxon.
No morphological evidence was observed in the disjunct populations to suggest genetic influence from Kopsiopsis strobilacea; refer to 1. K. strobilacea for further discussion.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 2 (2 in the flora).
Kopsiopsis was first recognized by Beck but was treated as part of Boschniakia by many subsequent authors. Zhang Zhi Y. (1987) and Yu W. B. (2013) presented further morphological evidence for separating the two genera. Kopsiopsis differs from Boschniakia in the following traits: inflorescences compact or open racemes versus dense spikes; pedicels present versus absent; bracteoles present (rarely absent) versus absent; corollas funnelform versus short-tubular, constricted above ovary versus corolla base inflated; leaves spatulate versus triangular or lanceolate; and, seeds 1.5–3 mm versus 0.5–0.7 mm. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the family (J. R. McNeal et al. 2013) supports Boschniakia as sister to a lineage that includes the genera Conopholis, Epifagus, and Kopsiopsis, and as-yet unpublished molecular data suggest that Kopsiopsis may be sister to the southern Mexican genus Eremitilla Yatskievych & J. L. Contreras (S. Mathews, pers. comm.).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Bracts spatulate or broadly oblanceolate, apices obtuse or truncate, rolled adaxially; stems stout, 10–30 mm diam.; anther bases mucronulate; corolla lobe margins glabrous, sometimes ciliate; inflorescences compact or open racemes; leaf blades lanceolate, ovate, or broadly triangular, apices obtuse, margins entire, sometimes ± erose; parasitic on Arbutus and Arctostaphylos. | K. strobilacea |
1. Bracts narrowly spatulate or lanceolate, apices ± acute, rarely obtuse, slightly rolled adaxially; stems slender, 5–17 mm diam.; anther bases rounded; corolla lobe margins minutely ciliate; inflorescences compact racemes; leaf blades triangular-obovate or rhombic, apices obtuse or ± acute, margins finely erose; parasitic on Gaultheria shallon. | K. hookeri |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
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- Local floras: CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
