purple owl's-clover ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord

purple owl's-clover / banded owl's-clover

Castilleja exserta var. latifolia

Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

It is with many thanks to Mark Eggar on Flickr with his impressive knowledge and photo collection of Castilleja that I was able to obtain expert ID for the purple owl's clover variety/subspecies. My policy for Nature ID is to never use other people's photos and only quote if I have written permission. Seeing as how I don't have permission from Mark, yet, click on this link to my Flickr post for his comment about why these Castilleja are unusual to ID. As a note, the ongoing 2006 CNPS vascular plant list for Fort Ord (alphabetical) does not include this subspecies.

I could not decide which photo was better, the clearer first one with the non-native foxtail chess (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) in Poaceae or the second pic with chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) in Rosaceae, so I posted both. The third pic centers on older C. exserta var./ssp. latifolia with what I believe is white-flowering wedge-leaved horkelia (Horkelia cuneata) in Rosaceae to the top right. The last photo above shows this Castilleja growing among sky lupine (Lupinus nanus) in Fabaceae and non-native sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) in Polygonaceae, as well as many other plants. These were found in areas that were burned in 2003, 2008, or 2009.

ps 06/02/11 - I've added additional ID's in the text based on Cindy's comment below.

narrow-leaved owl's-clover / valley tassels

Castilleja attenuata
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

posted 04/16/11 - I'm very pleased with this find as I was attempting to get pictures of another flower at the time. I would have walked right past it since it's so small and inconspicuous, especially among the grasses.

I learned of this ID during a visit to our town's Good Old Days last weekend. One of the regular booths at this annual street fair is hosted by the Monterey Penninsula Regional Park District. They had a copy of the newly released book Wildflowers of Garland Ranch - a field guide by Michael Mitchell and Rod M. Yeager, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, they were not selling the book at their stall. As it so happens, the following weekend (i.e., currently as I post this blog entry) is the 50th Annual Wildflower Show hosted at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History and run by a small group of dedicated volunteers from the local Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. While I didn't have enough cash on me to purchase the book (no credit cards accepted), I did return later yesterday with cash in hand.

I'd like to give public kudos to Carol and Brian LeNeve, who are always so kind and informative and tirelessly do the brunt work of the wildflower show.

ps 06/01/11 - This ID of C. attenuata was confirmed by Mark Eggar on Flickr. He's a public school science teacher up in Seattle, WA, and I consider him one of the most accessible Castilleja experts around. Check out Eggar's impressive Castilleja photo collection.

dense-flowered owl's-clover
Castilleja densiflora var. densiflora
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

I was really pleased at how well this photo turned out with the little faces (click on the picture to see a larger image), considering I took only one shot in a hurry as the wind was picking up right before it began to snow. To confirm this ID, I compared this with the purple owl's-clover (C. exserta ssp. exserta), which is also present at Garland Ranch and has a hooked, hairy beak, versus the exserted stigma of C. densiflora (seems contrary to the scientific names, eh?). If I had my druthers, I'd call all owl's-clovers CA quail's-clovers due to the little "plume" (hooked, hairy, exserted, or otherwise) above the face.

ps 06/01/11 - This ID of C. densiflora var. densiflora was confirmed by Mark Eggar on Flickr. He's a public school science teacher up in Seattle, WA, and I consider him one of the most accessible Castilleja experts around. Check out Eggar's impressive Castilleja photo collection.

purple owl's-clover
Castilleja exserta var. latifolia
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

purple owl's-clover
Castilleja exserta var. latifolia
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

an "odd form" of johnny nip
Castilleja ambigua var. ambigua
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

Alrighty, this post on owl's clovers just about made me throw in the towel on continuing with this blog. Oh my goodness, I couldn't find decent IDs on any of these. What I provided above are my best guesses after looking over hundreds of pictures. I make no allusions that I key plants... or any of the IDs on my blog. I've heard remarks this method is not very scientific. Yeah, well, I'm not claiming to be scientific, but I do like to know what I'm looking at. In any case, I suspect there needs quite a bit of work done to straighten out this genus Castilleja. I'm seeking some help from someone I found online, so maybe I can reconcile these IDs.

ps 05/16/10 - I've already heard back from Mark Egger who is a CalPhotos contributor and specializes in Castilleja. I've made the corrections above according to his expert IDs. I'm also taking his cue by using variety and not subspecies in the scientific names. With big thanks to Mark Egger!!! I've added his Flickr stream under recommended ID links for Castilleja. If anyone can get Castilleja sorted out, he can.

LOL, my 3 guesses for the last photo of johnny nip were: Castilleja attenuata, C. densiflora ssp. obispoensis, C. lineariloba. Oh well...

dense-flowered owl's-clover
Castilleja densiflora ssp. densiflora
Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

Despite the common name of owl's-clover, this plant is in the Castilleja genus (family Scrophulariaceae) along with paintbrushes, not Trifolium (family Fabaceae) with other true clovers. For a fabulous picture of why this is called owl's clover, look at Doreen Smith's photo and imagine little owls sitting there.

I'm fairly positive about this ID. There are a couple of other similar looking species: C. brevistyla (short style owl's-clover) - it's difficult to find ID info on this and is not listed for Garland Ranch; and C. exserta ssp. exserta (purple owl's clover) - however, mine doesn't have hooked, hairy beaks.

Note: I did not link to Calflora & CNPLX's C. brevistyla entries because they are still showing a misidentified photo as corrected to C. densiflora by Jeffrey Greenhouse.

ps 04/13/10 - I rewrote this post because I mixed up my links. It's really easy to make mistakes. I can't imagine tackling something as impressive as CalPhotos.