114 STERCULIACEAE 



sexual, commonly axillary. Calyx persistent, 4-5-lobed or -parted, sometimes petal- 

 cid. Petals 5, hypogynous, sometimes wanting. Stamens 5, alternating with the 

 petals, usually united below into a column. Pistil compound, free ; ovary 3-5-celled 

 or rarely 10-12-celled ; ovules 1 to many, anatropous or rarely orthotropous ; style 

 simple, or with as many branches as ovary-cells. Fruit a capsule, or rarely a nut 

 or berry. Seeds with a bony or membranaceous coat ; endosperm present or none. 



A family of 50 genera and about 800 species, mainly tropical and most abundant in the Old World. 



Flowers showy: calyx corolla-like, yellow, the lobes rounded; corolla none; tree or arborescent shrub. 



1 . Fremontta. 



Flowers small; petals with a filamentous claw, the limb hooded, brownish; low desert shrub. 2. Ayenia. 



1. FREMONTIA Terr. Smiths. Contr. 6^: 5. pL 2. 1853. 



Arborescent shrubs or small trees, with hard wood, dark bark, and more or less stellate 

 branchlets. Leaves persistent, entire or commonly more or less palmately lobed, stellate- 

 pubescent. Stipules lanceolate, caducous. Bracdets 3 or 5, small, caducous. Sepals 5, 

 larg-e, petaloid, nectariferous-pitted at base. Petals none. Stamens 5, their filaments united 

 below into a column, adnate at the base to calyx; anthers elongate-oblong, extrorse. Ovary 

 5-celled ; ovules several in each cell, anatropous ; style subulate, stigmatic at the apex. Cap- 

 sule ovoid-prismatic, firm-coriaceous, loculicidally 5-valved. Seeds ovoid, black, bony, with 

 a small caruncle at the chalaza end ; endosperm present. 



A genus of 2 species, natives of California and Lower California. Type species, Fremontta californica Torr. 



Gland of the calyx-lobes hairy; fruit not acuminate. 1- F- calif oriiica. 



Gland of the calyx-lobes not hairy; fruit distinctly acuminate. 2. F. mexicana. 



1. Fremontia californica Torr. California Fremontia. Fig. 3230. 



Fremontia californica Torr. Smiths. Contr. 6^: 5. pt. 2. 1853. 

 Chiranthodendron californicum Baillon, Hist. PI. 4: 70. 1873. 

 Fremontodendron calif omicwn Coville, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 4: 74. 1893. 

 Fremontia obispoensis Eastw. Leaflets West. Bot. 1: 140. 1934. 



Arborescent shrub or small tree, 3-8 m. high, trunk with a rough bark, young twigs more or 

 less densely covered with a short-stellate pubescence. Leaves ovate to broadly ovate, entire or 

 commonly 3-lobed, 1-2.5 cm. long, green above, with scattering stellate hairs, canescent beneath 

 with a dense short-stellate puberulence ; petioles usually shorter than the blades ; bractlets small, 

 lanceolate-subulate ; flowers 3-5 cm. broad, yellow ; sepals broadly ovate, mucronate, stellate with- 

 out, more or less bristly at the base within, especially on the large sunken gland ; capsule ovoid, 

 2-2.5 cm. long, densely bristly; seeds dark brown, short-pubescent. 



Hillsides and mountain slopes. Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones; in the Sierra Nevada from Tehama 

 County, and in the Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo County, southward to San Diego County, California. 

 Type locality: "Sources of the Sacramento, in the northern part of the Sierra Nevada." April-June. 



Fremontia californica subsp. crassifolia (Eastw.) Abrams. {Fremontia crassifolia Eastw. Leaflets West. 

 Bot. 1: 139. 1934.) Arborescent shrub, 2-3 m. high, young twigs of the season densely pubescent with rather 

 long-rayed sellate hairs, becoming glabrous and reddish brown in age. Leaves broadly ovate or rounded, com- 

 monly 3-lobed with broad rounded lobes, cordate at base, glossy green and thinly stellate above, densely stellate 

 below; petioles densely long-stellate like the twigs, the pubescence becoming ferruginous in age; flowers yellow, 

 5-6 cm broad; gland on the inner surface of the sepals hairy. Chaparral-covered slopes. Upper Sonoran and 

 Humid Transition Zones; Santa Cruz Mountains, central California. Type locality: on hills above Big Basin 

 Park, north of Governor's Camp, Santa Cruz County, California. 



Fremontia californica var. napensis (Eastw.) McMinn, 111. Man. Calif. Shrubs 355. 1939. (Fremontia 

 napensis Eastw. Leaflets West. Bot. 1: 140. 1934.) Shrub, often spreading from the base, 2-3 m. high, young 

 twigs of the season densely stellate-pubescent with very short-rayed stellate hairs, the older portion of the 

 branchlets glabrous and reddish brown. Leaves 1-2 cm., rarely 2.5 cm. long, entire to shallowly 3-5-Iobed, 

 obtuse or rounded at base, rather dark green above with scattering short-rayed stellate hairs, pale green and 

 densely stellate beneath, the pubescence whitish at first, becoming ferruginous in age; calyx yellow or often 

 tinged with rose, small, the sepals commonly only 1-1.5 cm. long. Chaparral-covered slopes, Upper Sonoran 

 Zone- Coast Ranges of southern Lake County and adjacent Napa County, California. Type locality: north 

 side of Mount Saint Helena, Napa County. Small-flowered plants usually with smaller subentire leaves 

 occur almost throughout the range of the species, but none of these seems as extreme in its variations as the 

 plants from the Mount Saint Helena region. 



Margaret Harvey (Madroiio 7: 100-110. 1943) has made critical herbarium studies of Fremontia and 

 recognizes 5 species: F. californica Torr., F. napensis Eastw., F. crassifolia Eastw., F. obispoensis Eastw., 

 and F. mexicana (Davidson) J. F. MacBride. Under F. caltformca she also recognizes 4 varieties, which she 

 distinguishes as follows: 



Leaves variously lobed: (a) leaves dull green or dark green above, pubescence decidedly tawny below and 

 often matted, variety typica (Shasta County to San Diego County); (6) leaves bright green above, pubescence 

 whitish below, not tawny, variety viridis (Tehama County). 



Leaves entire, dull green or dark green above, pubescence of lower surface becoming tawny: (c) petioles 

 short, one-half to one-third the length of the blade, variety integra (Tulare and Kern Counties); id) petioles 

 longer than one-half the length of the blade, variety diegensts (San Diego County). 



As the typical form of the species seems to occur throughout the range, the biological significance of these 

 variations is not clear. Much more study, especially in the field, must be given before the constancy of the 

 characters noted can be determined. 



