Clarkia xantiana
Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 7: 146. 1859.
Stems erect, to 80 cm, glabrous, glaucous. Leaves: petiole 0–2 mm; blade linear to lanceolate, 2–6 cm. Inflorescences open racemes, axis straight; buds pendent. Flowers: floral tube 2–5 mm; sepals reflexed together to 1 side; corolla rotate, petals lavender to reddish purple, lavender-pink, or white, often with white-surrounded dark reddish purple spot distally, clawed, 2-lobed, with slender central tooth, 1–3 mm, 6–20 mm; stamens 8, in 2 unequal sets, outer anthers lavender to purple, inner smaller, paler; ovary 8-grooved; stigma exserted or not beyond anthers. Capsules 15–25 mm; pedicel 0–5 mm. Seeds brown, 1.3–1.5 mm, tuberculate, crest minute.
Discussion
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora): California.
Originally placed in the group now delimited as subsect. Phaeostoma by H. Lewis and M. E. Lewis (1955), Clarkia xantiana was treated as a monotypic subsect. Xantianae within sect. Phaeostoma by K. E. Holsinger (1985), based mainly on its unusual 2-lobed petals with a tooth in the sinus. Molecular data (R. A. Levin et al. 2004) placed C. xantiana close to C. bottae, and both of them close to but not within sect. Phaeostoma. Both species share the chromosome number 2n = 18 with C. jolonensis.
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Petals 12–20 mm; stigmas exserted beyond anthers. | Clarkia xantiana subsp. xantiana |
| 1 | Petals 6–12 mm; stigmas not exserted beyond anthers. | Clarkia xantiana subsp. parviflora |