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Figure 26. — Comparison of fruiting branches of the Apache plume — cliffrose-bitterbrush 

 complex. Left to right: Apache plume, Stansbury cliffrose, Stansbury 

 cliffrose X antelope hitterbrush hybrid, antelope bitterbrush. 



McMinn (1951) reported that the flowers are bisexual or rarely staminate. However, 

 we have found populations in which the shrubs were mostly monoecious or dioecious. 

 At a site in North Willow Creek Canyon, northwest of Richfield, Utah, at an elevation 

 of 1,680 m (5,500 feet), a number of shrubs were examined June 23, 1967, preliminary 

 to a hybridization attempt with some associated cliffrose shrubs. Although all the 

 flowers -on the Apache plume were perfect, in that both pistils and stamens were present, 

 some shrubs bore flowers in which the stamens were well developed but the pistils rudi- 

 mentary and nonfunctional (fig. 27). Other shrubs bore flowers in which the pistils 

 were well developed, but the stamens were rudimentary and nonfunctional (fig. 28). 

 Finally, a majority appeared to be monoecious, bearing both pistillate and staminate 

 flowers. Whether a flower was pistillate or staminate was obvious even in the bud stage 

 when the enclosing petals and sepals were removed. Only a few fully bisexual flowers 

 were found among the Apache plume plants at this locality. 



A population of F. paradoxa with only perfect and staminate flowers occurs west of 

 Bryce Canyon National Park, Garfield County, Utah, in Red Canyon on the edge of a 

 ponderosa pine type. 



The flowering period of Apache plume varies from area to area depending on such 

 factors as elevation and moisture. McMinn (1951) reports floral development from April 

 to June in California, Kearney and Peebles (1960) from April to October in Arizona, 

 and the USDA Forest Service Woody Plant Seed Manual (1948) from June to August. In 



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