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woolly meadowfoam

Photo is of parent taxon

Butte County meadowfoam, California meadowfoam, Shippee meadowfoam

Habit Plants 3–25 cm; herbage glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy.
Herbage

densely hairy.

Stems

erect to ascending or decumbent.

erect to ascending.

Leaves

1–8 cm;

leaflets 5–11, blade linear to ovate-elliptic, margins entire, irregularly toothed, or lobed.

Flowers

urn-, cup-, or bell-shaped;

sepals accrescent or not, ovate, obovate, lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or lanceolate-ovate, 4–10 mm;

petals white, obovate, oblong, or obovate-cuneate, 4.5–10 mm, 1.6–1.8 times as long as wide, 0.5–1.1 times longer than sepals, apex retuse, obtuse, erose, truncate, or emarginate;

filaments 2–7 mm;

anthers (yellow) 0.4–1.5 mm;

style 1.5–4 mm.

cup-shaped;

sepals accrescent, obovate, 7.5–10 mm, abaxially and adaxially densely hairy;

petals broadly obovate-cuneate, 8–10 mm, apex truncate or slightly emarginate;

filaments 3–7 mm;

anthers 1–1.5 mm, usually dehiscing extrorsely;

style 3.5–4 mm.

Nutlets

dark brown or gray, 3–4.5 mm, tuberculate, tubercles straw-colored, platelike, conic, or awl-shaped.

3–5, tubercles broad-based, platelike cones.

Limnanthes floccosa

Limnanthes floccosa subsp. californica

Phenology Flowering Mar–Apr.
Habitat Edges of vernal pools
Elevation 0-100 m (0-300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora).

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

Of conservation concern.

Subspecies californica occurs in Butte County on the eastern edge of the Sacramento Valley and on Table Mountain. It is sympatric with Limnanthes alba subsp. alba; it flowers earlier. J. A. Dole and M. Sun (1992) found no evidence of hybridization between them.

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

Key
1. Flowers bell- or urn-shaped (petals without marginal hairs basally); anthers usually dehiscing introrsely
→ 2
1. Flowers cup-shaped (petals with marginal hairs basally); anthers usually dehiscing extrorsely (introrsely in subsp. pumila)
→ 3
2. Sepals abaxially and adaxially densely villous; nutlet tubercles awl-shaped.
subsp. floccosa
2. Sepals abaxially and adaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy; nutlet tubercles platelike.
subsp. bellingeriana
3. Herbage densely hairy; sepals abaxially densely hairy.
subsp. californica
3. Herbage glabrous or sparsely hairy; sepals abaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy
→ 4
4. Sepals not accrescent, 7.5-8 mm, adaxially glabrous.
subsp. pumila
4. Sepals accrescent, 8.5-9 mm, adaxially densely hairy.
subsp. grandiflora
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 182. FNA vol. 7, p. 183.
Parent taxa Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Inflexae Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Inflexae > Limnanthes floccosa
Sibling taxa
L. alba, L. bakeri, L. douglasii, L. macounii, L. montana, L. vinculans
L. floccosa subsp. bellingeriana, L. floccosa subsp. floccosa, L. floccosa subsp. grandiflora, L. floccosa subsp. pumila
Subordinate taxa
L. floccosa subsp. bellingeriana, L. floccosa subsp. californica, L. floccosa subsp. floccosa, L. floccosa subsp. grandiflora, L. floccosa subsp. pumila
Name authority Howell: Fl. N.W. Amer., 108. (1897) Arroyo: Brittonia 25: 187. (1973)
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