Herbs usually villous through­out, often also glandular puberulent distally, or, rarely, entirely strigillose and glandular puberulent throughout. Stems usually erect, sometimes decumbent, slender, wiry, usu­ally many-branched, to 50 cm. Leaves: proximalmost not clustered near base, usually bluish green; blade linear to narrowly elliptic, 1–3.5 × 0.1–0.5 cm, base cuneate or attenuate, margins sparsely serrulate, apex acute. Flowers opening near sunrise; floral-tube 1.6–2.7 mm, usually moderately to very sparsely pubescent inside on proximal 1/2, rarely glabrous; sepals 1.6–4 mm, reflexed in pairs; petals 2.5–5 mm, each ± with 2 red dots basally; episepalous filaments 1–2.6 mm, epipetalous filaments 0.5–1.5 mm, anthers 0.3–0.6 mm, pollen with usually more than 30% of grains 4-pored or 5-pored; style 2.5–5.1 mm, stigma surroundedby anthers at anthesis. Capsules 15–45 × 0.8–1.3 mm; subsessile. Seeds 0.7–0.9 × 0.3–0.4 mm. 2n = 42.

Phenology: Flowering Mar–Jul.
Habitat: Sandy soil, slopes, flats, disturbed areas, grasslands, chaparral, pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Elevation: 0–2300(–2700) m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

B.C., Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg., Wash.

Discussion

Camissonia contorta is known from south Vancouver Island in British Columbia to south San Joaquin Valley and bordering foothills in Kern County, California, Ada and Adams counties in Idaho, western Nevada, east-central and southwest Oregon, and in Washington from San Juan and Whidbey islands, and Klickitat and Walla Walla counties.

P. H. Raven (1969) determined that Camissonia contorta is a self-compatible hexaploid and autogamous. The species probably arose, at least in part, following hybridization between the diploid C. campestris subsp. campestris and the tetraploid C. strigulosa, but some populations referred to as this species may also have originated following the functioning of an unreduced gamete in a tetraploid plant.

Although W. L. Wagner and P. C. Hoch (2009) came to a different conclusion for the valid publication of Camissonia contorta, the phrase “Camissonia contorta pubens” used by Kearney should be accepted as the telescoped representation of two different names: varietal and specific (K. N. Gandhi, pers. comm.).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.