Triteleia hyacinthina |
Triteleia |
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fool's-onion, hyacinth brodiaea, hyacinth cluster-lily, hyacinth triteleia, white brodiaea, white triteleia, wild hyacinth |
brodiaea, triplet-lily, triteleia |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, scapose, from fibrous-coated corms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | 10–40 cm × 4–22 mm. |
1–3, basal; blade narrowly lanceolate (linear in Triteleia ixioides), keeled, channeled, glabrous, margins entire. |
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Scape | 30–60 cm, smooth to scabrous. |
erect, cylindrical, 1–5 mm diam., rigid. |
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Inflorescences | umbellate, open, bracteate; bracts green (purplish in T. lemmoniae), ± lanceolate, scarious. |
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Flowers | perianth white, sometimes flushed purple abaxially, 9–16 mm, tube shallowly bowl-shaped, 2–4 mm, lobes ascending to spreading, with green midvein, 7–12 mm, 2–3 times longer than tube; stamens attached at 1 level, equal; filaments usually triangular-dilated, 2–4 mm, apical appendages absent; anthers whitish to yellow, rarely blue, 1–2 mm; ovary twice as long as stipe; pedicel 0.5–5 cm. |
perianth 6-tepaled, connate proximally into tube of varying length and shape, usually funnelform, lobes similar, usually ascending to spreading; stamens 6, epitepalous; filaments distinct, adnate to perianth tube in 1 or 2 rows, equal or of 2 unequal lengths, free portions flattened, sometimes dilated at base to form triangle, apical appendages usually absent, when present sometimes forming a crown; anthers versatile, usually curving away from stigma; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary superior, green or colored like perianth (yellow in T. peduncularis, white in T. clementina), stipitate, 3-locular, ovules anatropous, 2–several per locule; style 2–4 mm; stigma weakly 3-lobed; pedicel ± erect, often articulate, usually longer than perianth (shorter in T. crocea). |
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Fruits | capsular, ovoid, dehiscence loculicidal. |
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Seeds | black, ridged on 1 side, subglobose, rounded, coarsely and irregularly pitted, minutely granulate or granulate-reticulate, coat with crust. |
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x | = 7, 8. |
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2n | = 28, 84. |
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Triteleia hyacinthina |
Triteleia |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–Jun). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Grasslands, vernally wet meadows, occasionally on drier slopes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; ID; NV; OR; WA; BC
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w North America; n Mexico |
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Discussion | Triteleia hyacinthina is one of the most widely distributed members of the genus, common in low, moist places such as meadows, vernal pools, and along streams, and found occasionally in drier valley grasslands, foothill woodlands, and closed-cone pine forests. It is cytologically and morphologically variable, with large-flowered forms found in wet places; smaller, scabrous forms found in dry places; forms with rather long pedicels (sometimes recognized as var. lactea); and forms with filaments lacking dilated triangular bases. Most plants have white flowers, but a few interesting forms with restricted distributions have lilac, blue, or even purple flowers. Triteleia ×versicolor Hoover is a sterile hybrid of T. ixioides and T. hyacinthina found in Monterey. Triteleia lilacina is recognized here as a species distinct from T. hyacinthina because of its different base chromosome number (2n = 16) and presence of hyaline vesicles (R. F. Hoover 1955). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 15 (14 in the flora). For discussion of relationships, see under Brodiaea. Molecular evidence (J. C. Pires 2000) suggests the artificiality of the subgenera and sections that have been recognized within Triteleia, consistent with R. F. Hoover (1941), who recognized sections for reasons of convenience only. Thus, those infrageneric taxa are not utilized here. Several species of Triteleia are exceedingly variable, and polyploidy is common: multiples of both x = 7 and x = 8 occur, suggesting that chromosomal changes have played a significant evolutionary role within the genus (M. P. Burbanck 1941). Triteleia is widely distributed west of the Rocky Mountains, but its greatest diversity is in the “Klamath area” of northwestern California and southern Oregon. The corms of some species were eaten by native Americans. Among the most important diagnostic characters within Triteleia are features of the androecium, particularly stamen height and insertion relative to the perianth, and the presence of apical filament appendages. These characters are easily seen in the field with a hand lens. When collecting flowering specimens, one should make a point of mounting a few dissected flowers in a manner that displays these critical characters. The only Triteleia species that does not occur in the flora, T. guadalupensis L. W. Lenz, is endemic to Guadalupe Island off Baja California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 342. | FNA vol. 26, p. 338. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Triteleia | Liliaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Hesperoscordum hyacinthinum, Allium lacteum, Allium tilingii, Brodiaea dissimulata, Brodiaea hyacinthina, Brodiaea hyacinthina var. lactea, Brodiaea hyacinthina var. lilacina, Brodiaea lactea, Brodiaea lactea var. lilacina, Hesperoscordum lacteum, Hesperoscordum lewisii, Hookera hyacinthina, Hookera hyacinthina var. lactea, Milla hyacinthina, Milla hyacinthina var. lactea, T. lactea, Veatchia crystallina | Brodiaea section Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Hesperoscordum, Brodiaea section Seubertia, Brodiaea subg. T., Calliprora, Hesperoscordum, Seubertia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Lindley) Greene: Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 142. (1886) | Douglas ex Lindley: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 15: under plate 1293. (1830) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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