Herbs annual, rarely short-lived perennial, usually villous, sometimes strigillose. Stems 1–several from base, ascending or decumbent, to 80 cm. Leaves 1.2–12 × 0.2–1.5 cm; petiole 0–4 cm, distal ones 0–0.3 cm; blade (basal) narrowly elliptic or (cauline) usually narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, rarely linear, base (basal) narrowly cuneate, (cauline) cuneate or subcordate, margins usually sparsely and incon­spicuously denticulate, apex acute. Flowers opening near sunrise; floral tube 2–5(–7.5) mm; sepals (2.3–)5–8(–11) mm; petals yellow, each usually with 1 bright red dot, rarely 2, near base, (4.2–)7–15 mm; epise­palous filaments (1–)1.5–3.5 mm, epipetalous filaments (0.5–)1–2.5 mm, anthers (0.5–)1.3–2(–2.5) mm, less than 5% of pollen grains 4- or 5-pored; style (5.5–)7–12 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. Capsules straight or somewhat contorted, weakly 4-angled, 12–40 × 1.5–2.5 mm. Seeds 0.9–1 mm. 2n = 14.

Phenology: Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat: Sandy or clayey soils, coastal strands, grasslands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, oak woodlands, margins of Sonoran and Mojave deserts, rarely higher elevation meadows.
Elevation: 0–1600(–2600) m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Calif., Mexico (Baja California).

Discussion

Camissoniopsis bistorta occurs in California from Ventura County south and east through the counties of southern Los Angeles, southwestern San Bernardino, Orange, western Riverside, and the western two-thirds of San Diego, reaching the margins of the desert in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and southward in cismontane Baja California to Ojos Negros and San Vicente. The species occurs at exceptionally high elevations in the Santa Ana drainage of the San Bernardino Mountains. P. H. Raven (1969) indicated that there were occasional apparent hybrids between C. cheiranthifolia subsp. suffruticosa and C. bistorta occurring in intermediate habitats in areas where the two species co-occur. He determined that C. bistorta is self-incompatible.

Camissoniopsis bistorta was apparently introduced with stream gravel in 1959 in Goleta Marsh, Santa Barbara, California, and on ballast heaps at Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1893. It has apparently not persisted at either site.

Oenothera heterophylla Nuttall ex Hooker & Arnott (1839), not Spach (1836), is an illegitimate name that pertains to Camissoniopsis bistorta.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.