50 



WILD FLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA 



538. Wild Fuchsia 



Zauschneria Californica 

 and var. 



Epilobium 



A low perennial with scar- 

 let flowers resembling the 

 Fuchsia of the gardens. 

 Extremely variable. On 

 dry creeks, cliffs and 

 rocks. Coast ranges and 

 Sierras. 



All but one with 



539. Willow Herbs, 



Fireweed 



Annuals or perennials with reddish or white flowers 

 insignificant flowers. Tuft of hairs on seeds. 



There are about a dozen species in the State, the following being quite 

 common: E. Calif ornicum, tall coarse perennial; moist ground; interior valley. 

 E. paniculatum, annual, wide-spread, weedy tendencies; coast region and over the 

 Sierras. 

 539a. Fireweed Epilobium spicatum 



On rather dry hillsides and ravines in the northern Coast Mountains and 

 Sierras, often forming extensive masses of pinkish-purple by the sprays of rather 

 large flowers. It is seldom that such an attractive plant will spread so surely and 

 so quickly over burned areas in the forest. One of the most conspicuous plants in 

 midsummer in the Sierras. 



540. Gayophytum ramosiss- Annual with numerous slen- 



imum der branches and small 



narrow leaves, with 

 minute white or rose-col- 

 ored flowers. Few seeded. 

 Dry slopes, Sierra foot- 

 hills and into sagebrush 

 territory. Frequent. 



Similar, but stouter and 

 many seeded. Sandy 

 places, Sierra . foothills. 

 Frequent. 



Flowers sometimes one-half 

 an inch across ; 4 to 8 

 seeded. Less frequent, 

 Sierras, north and south. 



1 to 3 feet high. Flowers 

 showy, yellow turning to 

 red. Capsule 4-angled and 

 turned back. Dry places, 

 Santa Barbara, San 

 Diego. 



EVENING PRIMROSE OENOTHERA 



A large genus of 100 or more species with about sixty in the United States 

 and perhaps thirty of these in California. More recently the genus has been 

 divided up into a large number of genera on somewhat meager morphological 

 differences not readily discernible without special study. Some of them arc as 

 follows: Onagra, Anogra, Kneiffia, Hartmannia, Pachylophus, Lavanxia, Gaureila, 

 Megapterium, Galpinsia, Meriolix, Chylismia, Sphaerostigma. 



The genus comprises annuals or perennials, some even woody at the base. 

 Some are low without stems and others several feet high with stout branching 

 stems. The flowers are for the most part white, cream colored or yellow turning 

 reddish while fading. In size the flowers are from a quarter of an inch to several 

 inches across. Both the leaves and the flowers of an individual species show 

 remarkable variations in size and structure of the petals. For this reason one is 

 very apt to collect specimens that deviate so greatly from the average description 

 as to be unrecognizable. This has been wonderfully worked out in great detail 

 by a series of hundreds of individual flowers selected and pressed by Katherine 

 Brandegee. These must be seen to be truly appreciated. 



541 



542. 



543. 



Gayophytum racemosum 



Gayophytum diffusum 



Eulobus Californicus 



