Dudley’s clarkia

Godetia dudleyana Abrams, Fl. Los Angeles, 267. 1904

Stems erect, to 70 cm, puber­ulent. Leaves: petiole 3–10 mm; blade narrowly lanceolate, 1.5–7 cm. Inflorescences open racemes, axis recurved at tip in bud; buds pendent. Flowers: floral tube 1–3 mm; sepals reflexed together to 1 side; corolla bowl-shaped, petals lavender-pink, usually white-streaked, often red-flecked, broadly fan-shaped, 10–30 mm, apex subentire to crenulate; stamens 8, unequal, outer anthers lavender, inner smaller, paler. Capsules 10–30 mm. Seeds brown, 1 mm, minutely scaly to puberulent, crest inconspic­uous. 2n = 18.

Flowering May–Jul. Openings in woodlands, chaparral, yellow-pine forests, coastal sage; 0–1500 m; Calif.

Clarkia dudleyana is a rather widespread species in California, known primarily from the central and southern Sierra Nevada foothills, the Tehachapi Moun­tain area, the Transverse Ranges, and the Peninsular Ranges, ranging from Tuolumne to Riverside counties, sporadically in the north to Nevada County and in the south to San Diego County

Clarkia dudleyana is morphologically most similar to C. biloba and C. modesta, but molecular data suggest that the relationship is not close. On the basis of chloroplast DNA sequence, C. dudleyana and C. heterandra are closely related.