Calochortus argillosus
Jane McGary (Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:49:50 PDT)

The Calochortus, section Mariposa species are at their peak of flowering
here, and I'm trying to verify the identity of one that has been quite
successful in the bulb frames. I grew it from seed many years ago under the
name Calochortus argillosus, but later became uncertain about its identity.
I was just sitting down with the Jepson Manual (I don't yet have a copy of
the new book on the genus, though I'm expecting one any time now) and a
flower.

When I work through the long key (all the way to the end!) I do come up
with C. argillosus, yet in the species description in the text, this
species is said to have a nectary that is not depressed. My plants have
depressed nectaries, and I got to argillosus in the key via a step
specifying depressed nectary, so apparently the key and the text disagree.
An unusual characteristic of the flowers here, not mentioned in Jepson or
in Frank Callahan's discussion in Bulbs of North America, is that the zone
that's yellow on the upper (inside) surface of the petals shows greenish on
the lower (outside) surface.

Can someone help me sort this out, please? I have scores of these bulbs and
would like to distribute some. They're very pretty and increase fast by
stem bulbils.

Thanks,
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA