Leptosiphon ciliatus
Encyclopedia
Leptosiphon ciliatus is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family
Polemoniaceae
Polemoniaceae are a family of about 25 genera with 270-400 species of annual and perennial plants, native to the Northern Hemisphere and South America, with the center of diversity in western North America, especially in California.Only one genus is found in Europe, and two in Asia, where they...

 known by the common name whiskerbrush. It is native to western North America, including most of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and adjacent areas, where it is a common plant in many types of habitat.

Description

This is a hairy annual herb producing a thin stem up to about 30 centimeters tall. The leaves are each divided into needlelike lobes up to 2 centimeters long, the leaf pairs appearing like a cluster of narrow lobes.

The tip of the stem is occupied by an inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 of one or more flowers each with a long, hairy tube up to 2.5 centimeters long emerging from the leaflike sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...

s. The face of the flower is less than a centimeter wide and pale to bright pink with white and yellow coloring and reddish spots in the throat.

External links

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