Hackelia ciliata (Douglas ex Lehm.) I.M.Johnst.
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Authority
Gentry, Johnnie L. & Carr, Robert L. 1976. A revision of the genus Hackelia (Boraginaceae) in North America north of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 26: 121-227.
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Family
Boraginaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Perennial, (3-)5-7 dm tall; stems few to many from an often much branched woody caudex, erect, canescent, retrorsely strigose below, an-trorsely so above with coarse spreading hairs throughout. Leaves generally canescent with strigose or sometimes partly erect slender hairs, bearing coarse spreading hairs overall, these generally more dense on the margins and main veins; radical leaves few to very many, 5-15 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, narrowly elliptic to linear or linear-oblanceolate, petiolate (winged) up to 1/3 their length; cauline leaves linear, sessile, the lowermost 6-10 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, reducing upwards to minute bracts in the inflorescence. Pedicel 6-11 mm long in fruit. Calyx 2-3 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Corolla pinkish in bud, the limb light blue with a yellowish throat at maturity, 9-13 mm wide. Fornices with appendages short-papillate or short-papillate-puberulent, retuse. Nutlets 3 mm long, ovate; dorsal surface verrucose-hispidulous, the intramarginal prickles 7-12; marginal prickles connate below for about 1/3-1/2 their length, the longer ones 1.2-1.5 mm long and alternating with 1-3 shorter prickles. Chromosome number, 2n = 48.
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Discussion
Cynoglossum ciliatum Dougl. ex Lehm., Stirp. Pug. 2: 24. 1830. Echinospermum ciliatum (Dougl. ex Lehm.) Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 225. 1882. Lappula ciliata (Dougl. ex Lehm.) Greene, Pittonia 2: 182. 1891. Type. WASHINGTON. Near the narrows above the Kettle Falls of the Columbia and the Banks of the Spokan River, 1826, Douglas s.n. (K, type fragments and type photo GH!, type photo DS!). Lectotype was selected by Piper (1902). Hackelia ciliata, almost without exception, is restricted to sandy-gravelly talus. Like other Hackelia species it has enjoyed a great increase in available habitat with the advent of man. As was pointed out earlier man surely has played an active role in the spreading of Hackelia. He also has created extensive areas of unstable habitat which lend themselves well to the establishment of various members of the genus (especially the tetraploid taxa). Hackelia ciliata can be found growing in a stable habitat only in the extreme southwestern part of its range. In this steppe region the plant forms small populations in the sandy soil; it appears to do well in these stable areas where the competition is at a low level. The taxon is quite distinct and shows less variability than do most other tetraploid members of the genus. However, the notes of I. M. Johnston indicate he felt there to be some unusual forms of Hackelia in the Tonasket region. He proposed a new species to be named for J. W. Thompson3, but this was never published. There may, indeed, be slightly more variability in the populations of H. ciliata of this region, but in my opinion the plants are not worthy of designation as a separate species. Morphologically, Hackelia ciliata appears most closely related to H. diffusa var arida whose range lies just to the west and south. In fact, these two taxa may be difficult to distinguish in many instances if the corollas are absent. The habitat preferences of the two taxa are very similar, and although the two appear allopatric, they may overlap in the Okanogan region. The variability found in H. ciliata in the Tonasket area may be a result, therefore, of introgression from H. diffusa var arida. In Lehmann’s original description of Hackelia ciliata he makes no mention of the type or of the type locality. There is, therefore, some question about the type for this species. In 1882 Gray commented that, “Douglas’s station noted in herb. Hook, is ‘On the gravelly banks of mountain streams near the head-springs of the Columbia; in herb. Benth. Kettle Falls and Spokan River, 1826.”4 Gray apparently had some fragments of the Bentham specimen and his (and later Piper’s) interpretation of the species was based on this material. Although we have not seen the material from the Hooker herbarium, it is doubtful that this plant is the same as the Bentham material, because the site is considerably outside the known range for the species. If Lehmann’s description was based on material like that in the Hooker herbarium, and if this is not the same taxon as is in the Bentham herbarium, a nomenclatural problem exists. Piper (1902; p 543-544; 1906, p 475) chose as the lectotype the Douglas collection, “Kettle Falls and Spokan River.” However, the Boraginaceae of the Lehmann herbarium at Melbourne should be examined, to see which, if either, of the collections might be present. If the Lehmann herbarium has neither collection (which is probably the case), then the specimen of the Bentham herbarium will stand as lectotype.
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Distribution
Habitat and distribution (Fig. 16). Open slopes, sandy and gravelly talus, less frequent in sagebrush flats, rarely in well stabilized substrate at elevations of 1,000 to 4,000 feet, Okanogan Highlands region of Washington from Spokane and Stevens Counties east to Douglas and Okanogan Counties and adjacent British Columbia, Canada; also reported from Kootenai County, Idaho. Flowers in May and June.
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