GILIA FAMILY 



147 



former winter pools, often forming dense colonies in hog wallows, 10 to 1500 feet : 

 North Coast Kanges from Sonoma and Napa Cos. to Humboldt Co. ; Great Valley 

 from Fresno Co. to Shasta Co. North to .southern Oregon. Apr.-May. 



Note on the flower and fruit. — The capsule in Na%'arretia leucocephala is not regularly de- 

 hiscent. Instead the walls gradually break down in an irregular manner, a process hastened by 

 late May or June rains. The reddisli-brown seeds with their foveolate surface are thus released, 

 but held in the head by means of the dense ranks of spiny bract-segments and calyx-lobes, which 

 form a sort of basket. In consequence, the seeds are only gradually dispersed by air movement 

 or casual agency. Individuals sometimes show (i-merous corollas. Earely the corolla is lilac in 

 a colony where white corollas are equally prevalent. 



The primary or initial head is terminal on a main axis which is, in some ecological forms, only 

 % to % or 1 inch high. When in such case the axis is very short, from beneath this terminal head 

 are developed proliferous branches, all bearing in turn 

 terminal heads. This ecological habit-form is often char- 

 acteristic of seasons of scant rainfall and frequently 

 establishes a thin closely hugging carpet on sxmbaked 

 beds of former winter pools in the Great Valley. 



Locs. — North Coast Ranges: Windsor, Sonoma Co., 

 Jepson 9302; Calistoga, Tracy 1853; Lower Lake, Lake 

 Co., H. A. Dutton; Little Lake Valley, Mendocino Co., 

 Tracy 14,051 ; Round Valley, ne. Mendocino Co., Tracy 

 15,758; betw. Middle and North Yager creeks, Humboldt 

 Co., Tracy 8476. Great Valley: Fresno, Eisen; Madera 

 (8 mi. n.). Hoover 1253; Athlone, Merced Co., Hoover 

 608; Barfield School, e. of Turlock, Jepson 10,696; Mo- 

 desto (10 mi. w.). Hoover 580; Burnett sta., 2 mi. nw. of 

 Oakdale, Jepson 15,018; Clements, ne. San Joaquin Co., 

 Jepson 1823d; Vaeaville, Jepson 6797; Mills sta., ne. 

 Sacramento Co., Jepson 15,731; Rio Linda, n. of Sacra- 

 mento, Jepson 16,570; Roseville, Placer Co., U. E. Arp ; 

 Willows, Glenn Co., Jepson 15,019; Chico, Palmer 2081; 

 Pine Creek, s. of Vina, Tehama Co., Beller 11,337 ; An- 

 derson, Shasta Co., Alice King ; Redding, C. F. Rose. 



Refs. — Navahretia leucocephala Benth., PI. 

 Hartw. 324 (1849), type loc. "Sacramento Valley," Hart- 

 weg 247 (more specilieally, plains near Feather River; 

 cf. Erythea 5:55); Jepson, Man. 788, fig. 769 (1925). 

 Gilia leucocephala Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 8:270 (1870) ; 

 Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 427 (1901), ed. 2, 332 (1911). 



Fig. 374. Navahretia leucoce- 

 phala Benth. a, habit, X % ; 6, A-, 

 X 2I/2; c, bract, X 2V2. 



2. N. minima Nutt. Stem branched from 

 the base, % to 3 14 inches high, the heads ter- 

 minal, many, especially in relation to the size 

 of the plant, and commonly crowded; herbage 

 scantily puberulent or subglabrous ; leaves 1/2 to 11/4 inches long, pinnately divided 

 into 3 to 5 remote pairs of short linear-subulate segments, or the segments reduced 

 to 1 or 2 pairs set near the base of the linear-filiform rachis, or the lower leaves some- 

 times entire; petioles very short or almost none; bracts similar to the leaves, the 

 lower part or body ciliate and sometimes puberulent on the back; heads small (3 

 to 6 lines broad), dense, evenly rounded, that is, the bracts and flowers subequal, 

 or only a few bracts (especially the outer) exceeding the heads ; calyx perfectly gla- 

 brous outside (rarely partially hairy), its teeth short, broad, entire or some bifid 

 or trifid, often divergent, about 1/0 as long as the tube; sinuses of ealjrs densely 

 short-hairy; corolla white, 21/0 to 3 lines long, shorter than or little exceeding the 

 calyx; stamens exserted, the filaments inserted a little below middle of corolla- 

 throat; style not cleft or very shortly 2-cleft; capsule 1 to 8-seeded. 



Moist places (overflowed in winter or spring) or margins of ponds: northern 

 Sierra Nevada, 3400 to 6100 feet, from Nevada Co. to Lassen and Shasta Cos. ; North 

 Coast Ranges, 750 to 5000 feet, from Mendocino Co. to Humboldt Co. East to 

 Nebraska, north to Washington. July- Aug. 



Tax. note. — In most respects Navarretia minima may be viewed as a dwarfed form of N. leu- 

 cocephala with many small heads and with short corollas. On technical grounds it has some claims 

 to rank as a variety of N. leucocephala. 



