142 



POLEMONIACEAE 



Flowers showy, pink, lilac, white or yellowish, fragrant, borne in few-flowered 

 terminal clusters or solitary. Calyx membranous to the base below the sinuses. 

 Corolla salverform or with funnelform throat, the tube commonly exceeding the 

 calyx. Stamens short, inserted in or below the throat. Seeds unchanged under 

 water. — Species 2. (Greek leptos, narrow, and dactylon, finger, in reference to 

 the palmately parted leaves.) 



Leaves mostly persistent for 2 or more seasons ; corolla tubular-f urmelf orm, the tube and throat 

 1% to 2 times as long as the lobes; stamens inserted in throat 1. L. pungens. 



Leaves mostly deciduous after first season ; corolla strictly salverform, the tube equaling or shorter 

 than the lobes; stamens inserted above middle of corolla-tube 2. L. californicum. 



1. L. pungens (Torr.) Jepson. Granite Gilia. (Fig. 373.) Small bush 3 to 

 8 inches high, the stems several to many, branching, arising from a branched woody 



base, densely clothed with leaves to top, Phlox- 

 like and often forming a broad rough mat; 

 stems of the season puberulent to densely vil- 

 lous and frequently also glandular, in age 

 shedding the pallid epidermis and becoming 

 dark and rough; leaves persistent for 2 or 3 

 seasons, prevalently alternate but the lower 

 ones occasionally opposite, sessile, palmately 

 or somewhat pinnately divided into 3 or 5 (or 

 7) acerose lobes, 1 to 7 lines long, with shorter 

 leaves in the axils; leaf -lobes subequal to 

 strongly unequal, the terminal lobe usually 

 longest; flowers sessile, terminal or solitary 

 in the upper axils, or congested into a few- 

 flowered cluster; calyx hyaline between the 

 ribs, its lobes unequal, VS to i-fj as long as 

 the tube; corolla tubular- funnelfoi-m, white or 

 pink, 9 to 11 lines long, the tube 1% to 2 times 

 as long as the calyx; stamens equal, the an- 

 thers almost sessile, inserted on the corolla- 

 throat, included; capsule oblong, the cells 

 many -seeded; style very short, only a little 

 longer than the capsule. 



Dry gravelly or rocky places, mostly on 

 granite, 4000 to 12,000 feet : mountains of eis- 

 montaue and intramontane Southern Califor- 

 nia; west slope Sierra Nevada from Kern Co. to Siskiyou Co.; east side Sierra 

 Nevada from Inyo Co. to Modoc Co. South to Lower California, east to New Mex- 

 ico, Colorado and Montana, north to eastern Washing'ton. May- Aug. 



Field note. — M. E. Jones writes of the flowers as nocturnal (Zoe 5:41) ; it is certain that 

 diurnally the corolla remains closed in dull weather. The corolla-lobes are often reddish-purple 

 on the portion exposed in the bud ; even when fully expanded, the obovate lobes are somewhat 

 overlapping. 



Locs. — Cismontane and intramontane S. Cal. : Toro Peak, Santa Rosa Mts., Miinz 5874 ; 

 Taiquitz Peak, San Jacinto Mts., Carl Meyer 611; Bear Valley, San Bernardino Mts., Parish 

 3683 ; Holcomb Creek, San Bernardino Mts., Peirson 3348 ; Fish Creek, San Bernardino Mts., 

 J. Grinnell 21; Mt. San Antonio; Ontario Ridge, San Gabriel Mts., Peirson 152; Mt. Pinos, n. 

 Ventura Co., J. Grinnell 25. Sierra Nevada: Piute Peak, Kern Co., Purpus 5505; Mt. Whitney, 

 Burton 4' Hyerson 27; Kearsage Pinnacles, Jepson 856a; Kaiser Peak, A. L. Grant 1433; Piute 

 Creek, Fresno Co., E. Ferguson 449 ; Silver Pass, Fresno Co., A. L. Grant 1520 ; Snow Creek, Tose- 

 mite, Jepson 10,495; Lake Merced, Mariposa Co., Jepson 4419; Lambert Dome, upper Tuolumne 

 River, Jepson 3247; Coimess Creek, Tuolumne Canon, Jepson 3364; Angora Ridge near Lake 

 Tahoe, Ottley 859; Colby, Butte Co., S. M. Austin; lava beds, ne. Shasta Co., Hall # Babcock 

 4236; Whitney Creek, Mt. Shasta, Peirson 3809. East slope and east side Sierra Nevada: Little 

 Cottonwood Mdw. (near Horseshoe Mdw.), w. Inyo Co., Jepson 923; Bishop (foothills s.). Heller 



Fig. 373. Leptodacttlon pungens 

 Jepson. a, fl. branchlet, X V2; b, long, 

 sect, of corolla, X 1 ; c, calyx, X 1%. 



