Cordylanthus tenuis

A. Gray

Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 7: 383. 1868.

Common names: Slender bird’s-beak
IllustratedEndemic
Synonyms: Adenostegia tenuis (A. Gray) Greene
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 17. Treatment on page 676. Mentioned on page 667, 670, 673.

Stems erect to ascending, 20–80(–120) cm, glabrous or sparsely glandular-puberulent, puberulent, and/or pilose. Leaves puberulent, often pilose, or glabrous; proximal 20–60 mm, margins entire or 3-lobed, lobes 0.5–1 mm wide; distal 10–40 × 0.3–2 mm, margins entire. Inflorescences spikes, 2–7-flowered, or flowers solitary; bracts 1–4, 5–20 mm, margins entire or 3-lobed, lobes green or purple distally, narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, apex rounded. Pedicels: bracteoles 10–20 mm, margins entire or toothed. Flowers: calyx 10–20 mm, tube 0 mm, apex 2-fid, cleft 1 mm; corolla pale yellow, marked with purple along veins and galea, 10–20 mm, throat 6–8 mm diam., abaxial lip 4–6 mm, ca. equal to and appressed to adaxial; stamens 4, filaments hairy, fertile pollen sacs 2 per filament, equal. Capsules narrowly ovoid, 5–10 mm. Seeds 6–16, dark brown, ovoid to rhomboid, 1.5–2.5 mm, striate.

Discussion

Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Leaf lobes filiform; stems glabrous proximally. Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. brunneus
1 Leaves or leaf lobes linear to linear-lanceolate; stems puberulent, glandular-puberulent, glandular-pubescent, and/or pilose proximally. > 2
2 Bracts densely hirsute. Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. barbatus
2 Bracts hirsute or pilose. > 3
3 Bracts entire. Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. tenuis
3 Bracts 3-lobed, sometimes entire. > 4
4 Leaves yellow-green; inflorescences 4–6-flowered. Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. pallescens
4 Leaves green to gray-green; inflorescences 1–3-flowered. Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. viscidus