Cordylanthus eremicus
Man. S. Calif. Bot., 483, 601. 1935.
Stems erect or ascending, 10–80 cm, puberulent, glabrescent. Leaves puberulent, sometimes scabrous; proximal 10–40 mm, margins 3–7-lobed, lobes 1 mm wide; distal 5–25 × 1 mm, margins entire. Inflorescences capitate spikes, 3–14-flowered; bracts 5–10, 5–20 mm, margins 5–7-lobed, lobes purple or yellow-green, linear to filiform. Pedicels: bracteoles 10–20 mm, margins entire. Flowers: calyx 10–20 mm, tube 1–3 mm, apex entire or 2-fid, cleft 0–0.5 mm; corolla pink to lavender-pink, usually spotted with purple, 10–20 mm, throat 4–6 mm diam., abaxial lip pink or yellow, 3–6 mm, shorter than and appressed to adaxial; stamens 4, filaments hairy, fertile pollen sacs 2 per filament, equal. Capsules oblong-lanceoloid, 7–10 mm. Seeds 10–15, pale brown, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm, reticulate.
Discussion
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Cordylanthus eremicus is similar to C. wrightii, which also has relatively short, dense spikes and inflorescence bracts palmately three- to seven-lobed. Cordylanthus eremicus can be distinguished from C. wrightii by its gray to white hairs.
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Bracts: lobes purple distally, apices rounded to retuse; calyx tubes 2–3 mm; filaments hairy throughout. | Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. eremicus |
| 1 | Bracts: lobes green to yellow-green distally, apices acute; calyx tubes 1 mm; filaments hairy distally. | Cordylanthus eremicus subsp. kernensis |