320 BORAGINACEAE 



Pauoche Valley, Jepson 18,128 ; Arroyo Hondo Wash, n. of Cantua Creek, Jepson 16,950 ; Kettle- 

 man Plam, Hoover 1859) to southeastern San Luis Obispo Co. (White Hills'). 



The flowers are the largest known in Amsinckia and in a season of high rainfall change the 

 aspect of many leagues of barren hills of the inner South Coast Eange with such wide displays 

 of color as to take on somewhat the character of the marvelous. In many areas it is, in its season, 

 the only plant on the naked hills. In some localities it is closely associated with the species. 



'Eefs. — Amsinckia vebnicosa H. & A., Bot. Beech. 370 (1840), tj-pe from Cal., Doufflas; 

 Jepson, Man. 843 (1925). A. carnosa Jones, Contrib. W. Bot. 8:35 (1898), type loc. Shepherd 

 Caiion, Argus Kange, Inyo Co., Jones. A. glauca Suksd., Werdenda 113 (1931), type loc. Sunset, 

 Kern Co., Heller 7722. Var. turcata Hoover, Endemism in the flora of the Great Valley of Cali- 

 fornia, 107, — 1937 (ms.). A. furcata Suksd., Werdenda 113 (1931), type loc. White Hills, near 

 Cuyama Valley, se. San Luis Obispo Co., Eastwood. 



2. A. grandiflora Kleeb. Stem erect, branched at the middle or above, 1 to 2 

 feet high, thinly rough-hispid, the leaves more densely hispid with pustulate bases 

 and also minutely puberulent ; leaf-blades linear to oblong, 1 to 3% inches long, 

 the upper ones lanceolate or narrow-ovate, all sessile or the lower narrowed to a 

 broad petiole; spikes showy, rather dense, at length 2 to 7 inches long; corolla 

 orange-yellow, 7 to 9 lines long, its limb 3 to 5 lines broad ; nutlets similar to those 

 of A. vernicosa but the sear ovate-lanceolate, supra-basal (seated above the base % 

 the way to the apex). 



Open grassy flats or hillslopes, 10 to 1200 feet : inner Coast Range in Contra 

 Costa, Alameda and San Joaquin Cos. and its immediately bordering plain. Apr.- 



May. 



Loes. — Judsonville, Contra Costa Co., T. Brandegee; e. Livermore Valley, Greene; Corral 

 HoUow, w. San Joaquin Co., Hoover 3357. 



Field note. — On April 9, 1938, Amsinckia grandiflora was discovered on a hillside about one 

 mile north of Corral Hollow, very near the boundary between San Joaquin and Alameda counties. 

 The plants, abounding in a somewhat alkaline clay soil and forming essentially one large colony, 

 made a bright orange spot on the hill visible for several miles. No other existent locality is 

 knovm. At the original locality, in the vicinity of Antioch, it is perhaps exterminated. — R. F. 

 Hoover. 



Kefs. — Amsinckia OBANDirLORA Kleeb.; Gray, Bot. Cal. 1:525 (1876), type loc. Antioch, 

 Kellogg; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 449 (1901), ed. 2, 350 (1911). A. vernicosa var. grandiflora 

 Gray I.e. A. spectabilis Mcbr., Contrib. Gray Herb. 49:5 (1917) ; Jepson, Man. 843 (1925) ; not 

 F. & M. (1836). 



3. A. doaglasiana A. DC. Stem erect, usually rather slender, branching at or 

 above the base or uubranched, 8 to 16 inches high, sparsely bristly-hispid ; leaf- 

 blades linear to linear-spatulate or oblong, or the upper lanceolate or narrow-ovate, 

 thinly hispid, 1 to ZYo inches long, sessile or the lower narrowed to a short petiole; 

 spikes 1 to 4 inches long ; calyx covered with a dense soft coat of appressed rusty 

 hairs, the bristles relatively few, 1 or 2 pairs of the lobes united, making 3 or 4 of 

 unequal width, the broader ones usually notched at apex; corolla orange-yellow, 

 6 to 8 lines long, 3 to 5 lines broad; nutlets broadly ovate, broader than thick, 2 lines 

 long, the back flattish, densely tessellate and more or less transversely rugulose, 2 

 lines long ; margins of the nutlets often thin and sometimes corneous-dentate ; tes- 

 sellations and rugae smooth, not scabrous or muricate; dorsal median keel low, 

 sometimes obsolete towards the base. 



Dry open hillslopes and valley floors, 400 to 2000 feet : South Coast Ranges back 

 of the coast in Monterey, San Benito and San Luis Obispo Cos., east to the Temblor 

 Range in western Kern Co. and south to northern Santa Barbara Co. Mar. -May. 



Field note. — Scattered here and there at intervals, stations for Amsinckia douglasiana are 

 frequent in the Salinas Valley and its neighboring cafions. As one travels southeasterly, it be- 

 comes more common. On the west side of the Cholame Valley in eastern San Luis Obispo Co., the 

 vernal landscape is largely dominated by its yellow flowers, and in Palo Prieto Caiion also it 

 colors widely the hills. About Grant Lake in Palo Prieto Pass one may find a large colony, while 

 southward still, from the Yeguas Hills (which lie about north of Yeguas Peak) to the Carrizo 

 Plain, colonies of five hundred acres cover, here and there, the barren hills in AprU. The Yeguas 

 district appears to be the center of distribution of this species. 



' The synonymy in Amsinckia is largely by Eobert Francis Hoover. 



