Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Qjurious
Type:
Info
Chapter:
3-644.21.__
Hesperolinon congestum
English: Marin dwarf flax; Marin western flax.
Region: San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin County, California, United States.
Habitat: serpentine soils, in dry native bunch grasses, chaparral, other grasslands; elevations below 200 meters.
Culture: threatened species.
Botany
Annual herb.
Flowers: The outlook for this plant depends on survival of only about twenty small colonies, most of which are not actively managed for protection, even though the species is federally and state-listed as threatened. This species is also less commonly known as.
Stems: 5 to 15 centimeters long.
Leaves: linear; alternate; not planar, not clasping; stipule glands well developed with red exudate.
Inflorescences: dense, with cymes characteristically open and 0.5 to 8.0 millimeter pedicels somewhat thread-like and ascending.
Flower: sepals 5, hairy, 3 to 4 millimeters, whose margins are minutely glandular; petals 5, pink to rose, widely spreading, 3 to 8 millimeters long, three minute scales at the inner base; stamen 5, ± 6 millimeters; anthers pink to deep purple; ovary 6 chambers; styles whitish 3; congested at the tips of the dichotomously branching stems; flowers between April and July.
Fruits: smooth surface.
Chromosomal number: n=18.