Calochortus monophyllus

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 12 May 2012 10:00:07 PDT
I hope some of our California native plant experts can answer this 
question. I have a dozen or so plants identified as Calochortus 
monophyllus in flower here. My only accession of this species was 
seed from Robinetts in 1993, but I may have grown seed of those 
subsequently without recording it. Some of the plants in bloom are 
typical flowers with brown markings above the nectary and somewhat 
round petals, but others are entirely yellow with no markings, and 
the petals are more pointed. I read in the description that the 
markings can be faint and the petal shape variable, but I see no 
indication that markings can be entirely absent. The unmarked-flower 
plants are definitely not C. amabilis (which I also grow), and I'm 
pretty sure they're not C. pulchellus. I'm basing this on the 
distribution of the petal hairs.

Are there populations of C. monophyllus without dark markings? Or is 
it possible that some of my plants are hybrids between monophyllus 
and amabilis? The two were growing in close proximity in my former 
bulb frames, and there were plenty of bees around.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA




More information about the pbs mailing list