Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 111 



Elephant Heads, Pediclaris groenlandica (Lousewort) 

 Scrofulariaceae (Figwort Family) 



By Roland Rice 



The Elephant Heads are among the strange and exquisite 

 posies that star the meadows bordering the Alpine heights of the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains. Their warm pink color and delicate 

 fragrance first attract the attention, and an examination of the 

 flower spikes furnish a delightful surprise. An elephant's large, 

 flapping ears at the sides of the forehead, the long, slender, curved 

 trunk, and a suggestion of tusks are to be seen in miniature, in each 

 of the tiny blossoms. 



The plant is about a foot high, with bronze-green, fern-like 

 foliage, clustered at the base of the smooth, purple stems, and topped 

 by these long, densely flowered, pink spikes. 



A similar variety, Pedicularis attolens Gray, is also called Ele- 

 phant Heads ; but the little beak is more abrupt, and the flower 

 spikes smaller, and densely clothed with white hairs. Both species 

 are frequently found growing together, although the latter is com- 

 moner in slightly lower altitudes. Their glowing colors are en- 

 hanced by the varying hues of other bright blossoms, which make 

 these upland meadows the fairest of all natural gardens. 



The Elephant Heads range from the far northern shores of 

 Hudson Bay and across the continent to our lofty Sierras, where 

 it is but a few miles to' orange groves and flowering plants of a 

 warmer clime. There are but a few other species of Pedicularis 

 listed in California. P. scniibarbata Gray, growing on dry ridges 

 and in the open woods of the Sierras, is widely distributed and 

 forms pretty rosettes of fern-like foliage, with little spikes of rather 

 attractive, yellowish blossoms, slightly tinged with purple, the upper 

 lip being hooded but not continued into a beak. P. racemota is 

 reported from Sierra Valley and northward. P. densiflora, the 

 handsome Indian Warrior, is included in this group and is one of 

 the best known and most popular flowers we have. It grows among 

 low, wooded foothills from the central part of the State to Oregon. 

 The Yuki Indian children called this friendly flower the "wai-mok," 

 which means Yellows-Hammer Flower, and so called because these 

 birds extract the sweets from its nectar-laden flower tubes. Per- 

 haps the name Indian Warrior, so popular with white children, was 

 given because they saw in its gay, wine-colored blooms a semblance 

 of the flowing feathers of an Indian's war-bonnet. 



An extremely interesting variety of Pedicularis, because of its 

 rarity, only known to have been collected from a single locality, near 

 Pescadero, is P. dudleyi Elmer. It is an odd little denizen of the 

 Santa Cruz Mountains, hidden away in the depths of the mighty 

 Sequoia sempervirens, and resembling somewhat the Indian War- 

 rior, P. densiflora, but is smaller and fewer flowered, and pinkish 

 white in color. It was named after the revered and widely known 

 scientist, Dr. W. R. Dudley, of Stanford University, who first dis- 



