MUSTARD FAMILY 25 



Mountain slopes, 1600 to 5000 feet : San Jacinto Mts. to Volean and Cuyamaca 

 mountains. Mar.-Apr. 



Locs. — The segregation of this species we owe to the late E. B. Payson, Unlike Streptanthus 

 heterophyllus and S. hallii, it is found on both slopes of the mountain range which lies between 

 the Colorado Desert and coastal Southern California. Its flower-buds, oblong or oblong-ovate, 

 are either glabrous or sparsely hirsute. The following stations validate the indicated range: 

 Winchester; Elsinore to Menifee, Alice King; Coyote Canon, Jepson 1428 ; San Felipe, T. Brande- 

 gee; Cuyamaca, T. Brandegee. 



Eefs. — Streptanthus simitlans Jepson, Man. 417 (1925). Caulanthus simulans Payson, 

 Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 9:295 (1922), type loc. Coyote Canon, Hall 1894. 



Caulanthus stenocarpus Payson, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 9:300 (1922), type loc. Bernardo, 

 San Diego Co., Abrams 3364. Flowers pendent; sepals purple; stigma nearly entire, very small 

 (ex char.). It is said to be nearest Streptanthus simulans. 



8. S, calif ornicus Greene. Annual; stem branching from the base, 8 to 12 

 inches high; herbage glabrous (or with a few scattered bristles below) ; basal leaves 



2 to 31/2 inches long, broadly oblong, strongly crenate, gradually narrowed down- 

 ward to a winged petiole Vio to % as long as the blade; cauline leaves oblong to 

 oblong-ovate, cordate-sessile, dentate, 1 to 2 inches long; pedicels hispidulose, 1 to 



3 lines long; flowers pendulous, 3 to 4 lines long; sepals purple-tipped, white-mem- 

 branous below; petals narrow, wavy-margined; pods obcompressed and strongly 

 flattened, somewhat sword-like, erect or pendulous, 1 to 1^4 inches long, 2i/2 to 3^^ 

 lines wide; style 1 to 1% lines long; stigma 2-lobed. 



Plains and hill slopes, 400 to 2000 feet : upper San Joaquin Valley and the 

 bounding inner Coast Range. Mar.-Apr, 



Tax. note. — This species, Streptanthus californicus, is the type of Sereno Watson's mono- 

 tj-pic genus Stanfordia (Bot. Cal. 2:479, — 1880). It is a very remarkable plant of highly local- 

 ized occurrence and is in general quite uncommon throughout its range, though extremely abun- 

 dant in the restricted colonies where it grows. Such colonies are found on valley flats or canon 

 sides and occupy more or less circular areas 4 to 80 yards across. These areas are exclusively occu- 

 pied by this species or at least it is the dominant and imparts, when in flower, a marked character 

 to the scene. The pod is "somewhat laterally compressed" according to Watson, and is often 

 described as thick or subterete, but we find it strongly flattened contrary to the partition, more 

 or less lanceolate just before maturity, but gladiate when mature (cf. spms. from Zapato Chino 

 Creek, sw. Fresno Co., T. Brandegee). The pods are straight or curved, even on the same axis; 

 and when half -grown, it is highly interesting to note, they are curiously vermiform-contorted just 

 as ia S. coulteri. In a small colony on the Carrizo Plain opposite the Panorama Hills, where the 

 plants were obviously of one lineage, we noted that the main flowering axes of some plants bore 

 deflexed pods, others bore ascending pods, others, still, bore spreading pods, and yet again there 

 were some plants with pods ascending or deflexed on the same axis. The distinctive corolla is 

 immediately pendulous; the sepals are strongly carinate, whitish on lower half, yellowish-brown 

 on upper half ; the corolla scarcely exceeds the sepals ; the petals are typically streptanthoid, nar- 

 row, greenish-yeUow with narrow' white wavy margins; the upper pair of petals spread right and 

 left, the lower pair are parallel and turned downward. The buds are large, deep velvety purple, 

 strongly 4-angled and 4-winged, in this respect resembling S. coulteri. About l^/^ miles south of 

 the station last noted there were discovered a few more colonies about one-eighth mile wide. 



The most remarkable character of this plant resides in the embryo with its trifid cotyledons. 

 Greene (Fl. Ft. 256) reduced Stanfordia to Streptanthus, on the basis of the similarity of its 

 flowers to S. inflatus, a reduction accepted bv the present author in the Manual of Flowering 

 Plants of California, 417 (1925). Payson (Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 9:300) reduced it to Caulanthus 

 and says of the deeply trifid cotyledons that they "are remarkable and without parallel in the 

 genus Caulanthus." However, we find that in certain specimens of Streptanthus (Caulanthus) 

 coulteri the embryos have trifid cotyledons, as for example in the following : Greenhorn Eange, 

 Hall 4- BahcocTc 5077; Orosi, Tulare Co., Harriet Kelley ; e. of Orosi, Harriet Kelley. 



All the habital and flower characters indicate close genetic connection of Stanfordia with 

 Streptanthus coulteri and its var. lemmonii and related species ; and we, therefore, retain it m 

 Streptanthus. The embryo, while very remarkable, is not unique, though the structure of the 

 fruit imparts to the species a marked, almost impressive character. Sereno Watson's f aith m his 

 genus may have wavered slightly, since he writes, on May 8, 1884, to E. L. Greene, "I would like 

 to have you find a second species of the Stanfordia."— Jepson, Botanical Letters of Other Days, 

 43 (ms). 



