Brodiaea pulchella

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Genus Brodiaea

Herbs, perennial , scapose , from fibrous-coated corms. Leaves 1-6, basal; blade linear , crescent-shaped in cross section . Scape solitary, cylindrical, usually slender, occasionally stout, rigid . Inflorescences umbellate , open, bracteate ; bracts scarious , not enclosing flower buds. Flowers: perianth 6-tepaled, distinctly connate proximally into tube , shiny, abaxial perianth usually bluish purple, tube narrowly campanulate or funnelform , outer 3 lobes narrower than inner 3; stamens 3, epitepalous, opposite inner perianth lobes, alternating with 3 staminodia (staminodia absent in B . orcuttii) opposite outer perianth lobes; filaments adnate to perianth tube, linear, base sometimes dilated to form triangular flap, or sometimes with abaxial wings or appendages ; anthers basifixed , appressed to style; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary superior, green (purple in B. jolonensis), sessile, 3-locular, ovules several; style erect; stigma 3-lobed, lobes distinctly spreading and recurved; pedicel erect , articulate at base. Fruits capsular , ovoid , dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, rounded to flattened, coat with crust with longitudinal surface striations . x = 6, 8, 12, 16, 18, 20, or 24.

Species 14: w North America including Mexico (Baja California).

Two schools of thought have existed regarding generic limits within the complex of species recognized under Brodiaea, Triteleia, and Dichelostemma: a single large genus (Brodiaea s.l.) with three subgenera (S. Watson 1879; W. L. Jepson 1923-1925; P. A. Munz 1959), or three separate genera (E. L. Greene 1886; R. F. Hoover 1939; G. Keator 1967, 1989, 1993; T. F. Niehaus 1971, 1980). Recent molecular, anatomical, and developmental evidence supports neither of these views . Bloomeria is related to Triteleia, and Brodiaea is closely related to Dichelostemma, with the only hexandrous species, D. capitatum, being sister to the rest of the three-staminate Brodiaea/Dichelostemma clade (R. Y. Berg 1978, 1996; J. C. Pires 2000). This recent evidence also suggests that the sections presently established within Brodiaea are in need of revision ; thus a sectional classification is not utilized in this treatment (R. F. Hoover 1939b; T. F. Niehaus 1971; J. C. Pires 2000).

Polyploidy and ecological specialization to serpentine and other unique substrates is common in Brodiaea, resulting in several rare and endangered species. Eleven of the fourteen species are restricted to California, where the flowering date is highly dependent on the amount of moisture in the early spring . Several species are exceedingly variable. Corms of some species were eaten by native Americans. Among the most important diagnostic characters within Brodiaea are features of the androecium, particularly the size and shape of the staminodia and apical filament appendages. These characters are easily seen with a hand lens in the field . When collecting flowering specimens, one should make a point of mounting a few dissected flowers in a manner that displays these critical characters.[1]

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Brodiaea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 24 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. appendiculata (Appendage Brodiaea) · B. californica (California Brodiaea) · B. californica var. californica (California Brodiaea) · B. californica var. leptandra (California Brodiaea) · B. coronaria (Cascade Lily) · B. coronaria coronaria (Crown Brodiaea) · B. coronaria rosea (Indian Valley Brodiaea) · B. coronaria subsp. rosea (Indian Valley Brodiaea) · B. elegans (Elegant Brodiaea) · B. elegans hooveri (Harvest Brodiaea) · B. elegans subsp. hooveri (Hoover's Brodiaea) · B. filifolia (Thread-Leaved Brodiaea) · B. insignis (Kaweah Brodiaea) · B. jolonensis (Chaparral Brodiaea) · B. kinkiensis (San Clemente Island Brodiaea) · B. minor (Dwarf Brodiaea) · B. orcuttii (Orcutt's Brodiaea) · B. pallida (Chinese Camp Brodiaea) · B. purdyi (Sierra Brodiaea) · B. stellaris (Star-Flower Brodiaea) · B. terrestris (Crown Brodiaea) · B. terrestris kernensis (Dwarf Brodiaea) · B. terrestris terrestris (Dwarf Brodiaea) · B. terrestris subsp. kernensis (Kern Brodiaea)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A flora of California, by Willis Linn Jepson. San Francisco, Calif., Cunningham, Curtis & Welch, 1909- url , p. 282, p. 289, p. 289, p. 290, p. 291.
• An introduction to California plant life Berkeley: University of California Press, [c1974] url p. 77.
• California fish and game. [San Francisco, etc.]: State of California, Resources Agency, Dept. of Fish and Game. url p. 250.
• California native plantsman: UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Tilden Botanic Garden: with an introduction by Walter Knight; interviews conducted by Suzanne B. Riess in 1990. url p. 145.
• Catalog of hymenoptera in America north of Mexico / prepared cooperatively by specialists on the various groups of Hymenoptera under the direction of Karl V. Krombein. .. [et al.]. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979- url p. 2046.
• Great Basin naturalist memoirs. 1987 [Provo, Utah]Brigham Young University, 1976-1992. url p. 806.
• Hand-list of herbaceous plants cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens. London, Printed for H. M. Stationery Off. by Darling, 1902. url p. 201.
• Journal of ethnobiology. 17 1997 Flagstaff, Ariz.: Center for Western Studies, 1981- url p. 162.
• Leaflets of western botany. San Fransisco:[J. T. Howell], 1932-1966. url .
• The Great Basin naturalist. 41 1981 Provo, Utah: M.L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, 1939-1999. url p. 26, p. 404, p. 85.
• Niehaus, T. F. 1971. A biosystematic study of the genus Brodiaea (Amaryllidaceae). Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 60.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2777510
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 4024495

Footnotes

1. J. Chris Pires "Brodiaea". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 20, 53, 55, 321, 326, 328, 331, 332, 336, 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.