Eschscholzia covillei Greene; E. minutiflora subsp. covillei (Greene) C. Clark; E. minutiflora subsp. twisselmanii C. Clark & M. Faull; E. minutiflora var. darwinensis M. E. Jones

Plants annual, caulescent, erect or spreading, 5-35 cm. Leaves basal and cauline; blade grayish or bluish green, glabrous, glaucous; ultimate lobes usually obtuse, terminal broadened at apex. Inflorescences cymose or 1-flowered; buds nodding. Flowers: receptacle obconic, cup without spreading free rim; calyx acuminate, glabrous, sometimes glaucous; petals yellow, sometimes with orange spot at base, 3-26 mm. Capsules 3-6 cm. Seeds brown to black, ellipsoid, 1-1.4 mm, reticulate. 2 n = 12, 24, 36.

Flowering late winter-spring (Mar-May). Desert washes, flats, and slopes; 0-2000 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah; nw Mexico.

Eschscholzia minutiflora is highly variable in flower size. Typically, plants are hexaploid (2 n = 36) with petals 3-10 mm. Tetraploid plants (2 n = 24) with petals 6-18 mm, from the northern and central Mojave Desert of California, have been distinguished as subsp. covillei . Diploid plants (2 n = 12) with petals 10-26 mm, restricted to the El Paso and Rand mountains of the western Mojave Desert, have been distinguished as E . minutiflora subsp. twisselmannii and are considered to be of conservation concern; previously they were misattributed to E . parishii .

SELECTED REFERENCES

Clark, C. and M. Faull. 1991. A new subspecies and a combination in Eschscholzia minutiflora (Papaveraceae). Madroño 38: 73-79. Mosquin, T. 1961. Eschscholzia covillei Greene, a tetraploid species from the Mojave Desert. Madroño 16: 91-96.