Camissonia bistorta  (Nutt. ex T. & G.) Raven               Oenothera bistorta                     Onagraceae (Evening Primrose Family)                         Southern Suncup

                                       March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Annual or of longer duration, occasionally simple, usually with several prostrate to ascending stems, these often with reddish tinge, the older epidermis exfoliating; stems rather slender, 0.5-8 dm. long; lvs. green, pubescent to pilose, narrowly elliptic in the basal rosette, to lanceolate on the stems, rarely linear, 1-12 cm. long, to 1.5 cm. wide, +/- denticulate, acute, the base usually +/- cuneate; petioles to 4 cm. long in the rosette, +/-subsessile above; infl. with short-erect and long-villous hairs; fl. tube 2-6 mm. long; sepals 3-10 mm. long; petals 5-15 mm., usually with a bright red spot near the base; stamens unequal, the epipetalous shorter; anthers 1-2.5 mm. long; style commonly 7-12 mm. long; stigma held well above the anthers at anthesis; caps. 1.2-2 cm. long, sharply quadrangular, 2-2.5 mm. thick, blunt or with a beak to 5 mm. long in the typical form of Orange and San Diego Cos. on the immediate coast; caps. longer, 20-40 mm. long, 1.5-2mm. thick, with a beak 3-10 mm. long away from the coast.

Habitat:  Coastal Strand, Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, etc. in disturbed places; Ventura and Kern cos. to n. L. Calif.  March-June.

Name:  Camissonia was named in honor of Adelbert Ludwig von Chamisso, 1781-1838, who named the California Poppy.  He was the botanist on the ship Rurik that visited California in 1816.  Bistorta means twice-twisted.  The fruit does a double turn.  (Dale 140).

General:  Occasional in the study area. (my comment).   Found in considerable numbers in a burn area on the west side of the Delhi Ditch in the spring of 1989.  I had not noted this plant here before the burn.  Photographed specimens were at the above burn area and at the burn area at the southerly end of the Eastbluff Bench. Common on the bench below Eastbluff North.  In 2005, a wet year, I found C. bistorta, Lasthenia californica and Salvia columbariae on the slope below the 23^rd St. bench.  These plants had not been noted here before and I suspect that they were seeded there and did well because of the heavy rains.  (my comments).          In the genus Camissonia the stigma is round while that of Oenothera is 4-parted, a sure clue to separate these two very similar genera.  (Dale 140).       Intergrades with C. cheiranthifolia ssp. suffruticosa.  (Hickman, Ed. 780).  62 species of western North America, 1 of South America.  (Hickman, Ed. 778).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 780; Munz, Calif. Flora 956; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 592; Roberts 30.

Photo Ref:  Mar 1 84 # 19; Mar 3 85 # 16; Feb-Mar 89 # 5,6; Mar 95 # 18.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  March 1984.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 157.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit  8/6/05.

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