Sunday, May 9, 2010

Browneye or Brown-Eyed Primrose

The browneye or brown-eyed primrose (Camissonia claviformis ssp. claviformis)
is another subspecies of the brown-eyed primrose. I previously blogged on the Peirson's brown-eyed primrose, a subspecies with a yellow flower. It grows from a basal rosette of long oval leaves.
Each flower has four white petals.
The pistil is longer than the stamens and has a bulbous stigma at the tip.
The stamens have long hairy anthers.
The base is brown (thus the name brown eye).  
These plants were found in the southern portion of Joshua Tree National Park on the bajada below the Eagle Mountains off the Hayfield Road exit of the I-10 freeway.
I saw quite a few of them, whereas two weeks earlier I saw none.
I think the difference was that on my April 17th trip I got there at 6:00 a.m., quite a bit earlier than my April 3rd trip. I believe it is a night blooming flower and that later in the day, when I was there previously, the flowers had already closed up.

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