Brodiaea elegans

Brodiaea elegans is a species of flowering plant in the cluster-lily genus known by the common names harvest brodiaea, elegant brodiaea, and elegant cluster-lily.

Brodiaea elegans
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Brodiaeoideae
Genus: Brodiaea
Species:
B. elegans
Binomial name
Brodiaea elegans
Hoover[1]
Subspecies
  • Brodiaea elegans var. australis Hoover, 1957[2]
  • Brodiaea elegans subsp. elegans
  • Brodiaea elegans subsp. hooveri T.F. Niehaus, 1971[3]
  • Brodiaea elegans var. mundula (Jeps.) Hoover, 1939[1]

The bulb is native to the mountain ranges of California and Oregon, where it grows in woodlands and meadows.

Description

Brodiaea elegans is a perennial that produces a stout stemlike inflorescence up to 50 centimeters tall. It bears showy flowers on pedicels up to 10 centimeters long.

Each flower has six curving tepals up to 3 centimeters long in shades of bright purple. In the center of the flower are white or pale purple sterile stamens known as staminodes; these are flat with pointed or toothed tips and between one half and one centimeter in length. Next to these are the fertile stamens topped with large anthers.

In Northern California, Brodiaea elegans is one of the later blooming wildflowers, often seen in May.

References
  1. Hoover Amer. Midl. Naturalist 22(3): 555–558 1939
  2. Hoover Leafl. W. Bot. 8(5): 132–133 1957
  3. T.F. Niehaus Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 60: 48, f. 11, 12a–d 1971


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