Habit: Annual to subshrub, from taproot.
Leaf: basal and cauline, alternate, simple, generally narrowly lanceolate or narrowly elliptic to ovate.
Inflorescence: spike, nodding in bud, generally flower from basal-most to distal nodes.
Flower: opening at dawn; sepals 4, reflexed singly or in fused pairs; petals 4, yellow, fading red, generally with 1+ red basal spots, with no ultraviolet pattern; stamens 8, longer opposite sepals, anthers attached at middle, pollen grains 3-angled except in polyploid taxa at 20×; ovary chambers 4, stigma +- spheric or hemispheric, exceeding anthers and cross-pollinated or +- = anthers and self-pollinated.
Fruit: 4-angled at least when dry, generally proximally thick, contorted or curled 1--5 times, or straight, not swollen by seeds, sessile.
Seed: in 1 row per chamber, narrowly obovoid, flattened, dull brown-black.
Species In Genus: 14 species: California, Arizona, Oregon, Baja California.
Etymology: (Greek: like
Camissonia)
Note: Polyploidy and self-pollination have predominated in evolution of genus. Incl in
Camissonia in TJM (1993).
Jepson eFlora Author: Warren L. Wagner
Reference: Wagner et al. 2007 Syst Bot Monogr 83:1--240
Unabridged Reference: Raven 1969 Contr US Natl Herb 37:161--396Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Camissoniopsis
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