Habit: Taproot branched or tuberous.
Stem: prostrate to spreading, generally < 1 m.
Leaf: blade broadly ovate to round or triangular, palmately veined (generally palmately lobed), base cordate.
Inflorescence: bractlets < calyx.
Flower: calyx 1--2 cm, generally 5-lobed, split to base on lower side, or sepals free; corolla 2--5 cm, bell- to funnel-shaped, showy, tube cylindric, generally < 1 cm, bent downward, throat 10--30 mm, limb with 5 flared lobes, throat and lower limb with colored lines (nectar guides).
Fruit: body 5--10 cm, fusiform, smooth, rough, or spiny, crested with branched projections generally only along upper suture; claws 1.5--3 × body.
Seed: 8--13 mm, angled, generally black, corky.
Species In Genus: 8 species: America.
Etymology: (Greek: elephant's trunk)
Note: Fruit dispersed by attachment of claw to animals.
Proboscidea parviflora subsp.
parviflora not in California according to some reports, naturalized in California according to others.
Unabridged Note: All California material previously identified as Proboscidea parviflora subsp. parviflora belongs instead to Proboscidea parviflora var. hohokamiana Bretting, according to some but not all reports; in California only in cultivation according to some reports, naturalized in California according to others; in Arizona cultivated by Native Americans for fibers from fruit.Jepson eFlora Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Lawrence R. Heckard
Reference: Bretting 1982 Amer J Bot 69:1531--1537
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Proboscidea
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