Leptosiphon bicolor

Common name: true baby star

Flower Profile

Abbreviation code (Codon): LEBI

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ericales/ Solanales
Family: Polemoniaceae
Genus: Leptosiphon
Species: bicolor

Description

General: Slender annual up to 1.5 dm. tall, the stem puberulent, often branched at the base, otherwise usually simple.

Leaves: Leaves rather firm, palmately 3-7 cleft, up to 2 cm. long, the segments linear, harshly ciliate.

Flowers: Flowers fragrant, sub-sessile in a dense, terminal, leafy cluster, the inflorescence leaves longer and more prominently ciliate than the lower; calyx firm, 5-10 mm. long, the 5 segments with needle-like tips; corolla with a very slender tube up to 3 cm. long, the throat yellow, the 5 abruptly-flaring, short lobes deep pink to purplish or white; stamens 5, the filaments attached in the corolla throat; style 3-parted; ovary superior.

Fruit: Capsule with 3, several-seeded carpels.

Bloom Period

April- June

Distribution

West of the Cascades, Vancouver Island, B. C., to California, east through the Columbia Gorge

Habitat

Mesic to dry, open, grassy places in the lowland zone; locally frequent on S Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands; S to CA.

Uses

None found (at the moment)

Propagation

Seeds were sown into cone-tainers filled with Sunshine # 1 (a soil-less, peat-based media) amended with micro-nutrients (Micromax) and a slow-release fertilizer (Osmocote 14-14-14). Flats of conetainers were placed in greenhouse set at moderate temperatures (70 degree days/50 degree nights.) Seeds germinated readily with no treatment. Most seeds germinated within one to two weeks. (Leptosiphon grandiflorus also needed no treatment before germination).

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