Sierra clarkia

Stems erect, to 100 cm, puberulent. Leaves: petiole 15–50 mm; blade elliptic to ovate, 2–5 cm. Inflorescences open racemes, axis recurved only at tip in bud, straight 4+ nodes distal to open flowers; buds pendent, narrowly obo­void, tip obtuse. Flowers: floral tube 2–4 mm; sepals reflexed individually; corolla rotate, petals lavender-purple, mottled or spotted with reddish purple, ± rhombic, unlobed, 7–14 × 3–7 mm, length 1.9–3 times width; stamens 8, subequal, subtended by ciliate scales, pollen blue-gray; ovary shallowly 4-grooved; stigma not or rarely exserted beyond anthers. Capsules 10–20 mm; pedicel 1–4 mm. Seeds brown or gray, 1–1.5 mm, scaly-echinate, crest 0.1 mm. 2n = 10.

Flowering Jun–Jul. Yellow-pine forests, foothill woodlands; 400–1100 m; Calif.

Clarkia virgata is known primarily from El Dorado to Tuolumne counties in the north-central Sierra Nevada range, with scattered collections to Mariposa and Yuba counties.

Clarkia virgata is very similar to C. mosquinii and C. australis and is probably derived from the former through chromosome reduction in number and rearrangement and may be ancestral to the latter, which differs in chromosome arrangement. Experimental hybrids in all combinations have very low fertility. The three species are difficult to distinguish morphologically but replace one another ecogeographically with C. australis in the south and C. virgata in the middle with non-overlapping distributions. Other than geographical distribution, C. virgata is usually distinguishable from C. mosquinii by having narrower petal blades and from C. australis by having broader leaves.