Farewell To Spring (Clarkia amoena)
Description
Farewell to spring, a member of the evening primrose family (Onagraceae), is a common, native, annual wildflower that grows ½ to 3 feet tall. Stems are upright to spreading, leafy, covered in fine, short hairs, somewhat grayish-green, often reddish below, and may be branched or simple. The alternate leaves are linear to lance-shaped, usually 1 to 3 inches long, smooth-edged, with lower leaves often falling by flowering time, while the upper leaves are more persistent and often folded. The flowers are single or in open to dense inflorescences with buds held erect. Flowers are cup-shaped, pale pink to deep wine red, and have four petals that are usually less than 1½ inches long, with more or less notched edges, often with a crimson to scarlet or purplish marking in their center. Flowers have eight stamens and a single pistil with a 4-lobed stigma. Flowering period is late spring to mid-summer. Fruits are long, narrow, straight to curved, pod-like dry capsules ¼ to 1½ inches long that ripen in the fall. There are five generally recognized subspecies of C. amoena, although intermediates among subspecies are common: Hunt’s clarkia (C. a. ssp. huntiana), Lindley’s clarkia (C. a. ssp. lindleyi), northwestern farewell to spring (C. a. ssp. caurina), Whitney’s clarkia (C. a. ssp. whitneyi), and farewell to spring (C. a. ssp. amoena).
Taxonomic tree
-
Domain: Eukarya
-
-
Kingdom: Plantae
-
-
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
-
-
Class: Magnoliopsida
-
-
Order: Myrtales
-
-
Family: Onagraceae
-
-
Genus: Clarkia
-
-
-
-
-
-
