Herbs sparsely or densely villous and glandular puberulent, espe­cially distally, sometimes glabrate or sparsely glandular puberulent. Stems erect, often many-branched, 5–30 cm. Leaves: proximalmost some­times clustered near base; blade usually very narrowly elliptic to narrowly so, rarely lanceolate, 1–3.8(–5.5) × 0.2–0.5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, margins sparsely serrate, apex acuminate. Flowers opening near sun­rise; floral tube 2.2–3.8(–5.5) mm, villous inside; sepals 5–9(–11) mm, reflexed separately; petals 8–15(–18) mm, each with 2 large red dots basally; episepalous fila­ments 3.5–5.5(–7) mm, epipetalous filaments 1.3–2(–4.5) mm, anthers 1.8–2(–3) mm, pollen with less than 5% of grains 4- or 5-pored; style 7–10(–14) mm, stig­ma well exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. Capsules 22–37 × 1.5–1.7 mm; pedicel 0–15 mm. Seeds 1.1–1.2 × 0.5–0.6 mm.

Distribution

sw United States.

Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

Camissonia kernensis occurs in sagebrush scrub, and Joshua-tree and pinyon-juniper woodlands at eleva­tions of 700–1900 m in southern and central California and southern Nevada. The species is self-incompatible and is apparently pollinated by oligolectic bees of Andrena subg. Onagrandrena (P. H. Raven 1969); Raven subdivided the species into two intergrading subspecies.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Camissonia kernensis subsp. gilmanii, Camissonia kernensis subsp. kernensis

Key

1	Herbs compact, sparsely glandular puberulent and villous throughout; leaves: proximalmost often clustered near base; pedicels 3–15 mm in fruit.	Camissonia kernensis subsp. kernensis
1	Herbs with open habit, glandular puberulent throughout, usually also sparsely villous, or glabrate, with few glandular hairs; leaves: none clustered near base; pedicels 0–5(–15) mm in fruit.	Camissonia kernensis subsp. gilmanii