Callirhoe bushii Fernald

Authority

Dorr, Laurence J. 1990. A revision of the North American genus (Malvaceae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 56: 1-74.

Family

Malvaceae

Scientific Name

Callirhoe bushii Fernald

Type

Type. United States. Missouri: Barry Co., Eagle Rock, 7 Aug 1905, Bush 3145 (holotype, GH, photograph, NA; isotype, NY).

Description

Species Description - Weakly erect, ascending or decumbent perennials, 4.8-14 dm tall. Taproots thick, napiform, to 1 dm long. Stems, petioles, abaxial leaf surfaces, peduncles, and calyces covered with fourrayed stellate hairs, the rays unequal in length, appressed. Stems 1-9 per taproot; stem vestiture of four-rayed hairs and often simple, spreading or retrorse hairs, sometimes glabrate. Basal and lower cauline leaves suborbicular to ovate in outline, palmately (3-)5-7-cleft or -parted, often pedate; leaf lobes oblong or obovate, the margins coarsely toothed; basal leaves as before, 4-13 cm long, 6-12 wide, the adaxial surfaces with simple, appressed hairs, with petioles equal to or many times longer than the blades, (13.5-)16-27(-37) cm long, vestiture of four-rayed and simple hairs; cauline leaf blades deeply or shallowly 3(-5)-cleft or -parted, 4.5-14(-19) cm long, (2.3-)5-15 cm wide, abaxial and adaxial surfaces with simple and four-rayed hairs, with petioles shorter than or equal to the blades, 2-13(-19) cm long, the vestiture principally of four-rayed hairs. Stipules ovate, broadly ovate, oblong-falcate or often somewhat auriculate, 8-16(-21) mm long, 3.5-10(-13) mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, apices rounded, margins ciliate with simple hairs. Inflorescence a raceme, the flowers solitary in the axils of leaves, the pedicels widely spaced below; flowering pedicels spirally arranged, 1.5-13(-18.5) cm long, exceeding the subtending leaves and bifid, emarginate bracts; fruiting pedicels 5.5-17 cm long; involucel of three lanceolate or ovate bracts, 8-17(-22) mm long, 1-4 mm wide, the apices acute or rounded, at least one bract 0.5-2 mm distant from the calyx, with margins ciliate, with simple hairs. Flowers perfect; floral buds ovate to widely ovate, 13-18.5(-20) mm tall, 5-10 mm broad, the apices of sepals valvate, forming a long projection, (3-)4.5-8.5 mm in length; calyx lobes lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 10-17(-20) mm long, 3-6(-7.5) mm wide, the abaxial surface and margins slightly to densely hispid with simple hairs to 3 mm long and four-rayed appressed hairs toward the apices of lobes, the apices attenuate; petals red or pale red, 2-3.2 cm long, 1.1-2.3 cm wide, the apices erose-denticulate; staminal column 9-13 mm long, upper 2/3-4/5 of column antheriferous, lower 1/5 -1/3 sparsely pubescent with simple hairs; anther sacs red or purple; stigmata red or pink. Fruit 8.5-11.5 mm in diameter; mericarps 16-21, ovate to subreniform, 4-4.6 mm tall, 2-3.5 mm wide, indehiscent, the back and upper side-margins rugose, glabrous, the sides indurate, reticulate, the beaks incurved, 0.7-2 mm long, sparsely strigose with 1-4-rayed hairs, the endoglossa conspicuous, the collars well developed, bifid, uneven. Seeds black, reniform, 2.5-3 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide. Compatibility unknown. Gametic chromosome number n = 28.

Distribution and Ecology - Distribution and ecology. Ouachita Mountains and Ozark plateaus; southwestem Missouri, northwestem Arkansas, and eastem Oklahoma, adjacent Cherokee Plains of northeastern Oklahoma and southeastem Kansas. Rocky woods, limestone glades, glade margins, meadows, stream banks, roadsides, and railroad and power line right-of-ways. Evidently favors clearings and minor disturbance. Occasionally sympatric with Callirhoe digitata in Arkansas and Missouri. Flowering late M a y to early August(-October).

Discussion

Callirhoe involucrata (Torrey & Gray) A. Gray var. bushii (Fernald) R. Martin, Rhodora 40: 460. 1938. Callirhoe papaver (Cavanilles) A. Gray var. bushii (Fernald) Waterfall, Southw. Naturahst 3: 215. 1959. Callirhoe bushii, although frequently confused with C. involucrata, is readily distinguished on the basis of calyx-lobe aestivation. In the former species the calyx lobes remain valvate, while in the latter species the calyx lobes are distinct and overlapping before the bud expands. Figs. 1F, 2G, 7F, 20. Callirhoe bushii is also erect or weakly erect in habit, whereas C. involucrata is decumbent. Furthermore, C. bushii is restricted to the Ozark plateaus and Ouachita Mountains (Fig. 20) in contrast to C involucrata which, except for a disjunct variety in the mountains of Mexico, is a species characteristic of the plains (Fig. 16). Callirhoe bushii is closely related to C. papaver. It seems probable that C. bushii, which is tetraploid with n = 28, and C. papaver, which has both tetraploid (n = 28) and octoploid (n = 56) populations, are derived from the same ancestor. The ranges of these two species come into contact in northeastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma (Fig. 20), but the two species do not appear to intergrade. As one would expect, the tetraploid populations of C. papaver are in northeastern Texas close to the range of C. bushii. In addition to geography and gross aspect there are a number of morphological characters that separate Callirhoe bushii and C. papaver. The involucellar bracts of C. bushii, always present, are ovate, plane, and 1-4 mm wide. Those of C. papaver, which are usually but not always present, are linear, often keeled, and 0.4-1.5(-2.3) mm wide. The cauline leaves of C. bushii have broad, oblong or ovate lobes, leaf sinuses that are 1-3 cm wide, and primary or central leaf lobes that are greater than 1.5 cm wide. In contrast, the leaves of C. papaver have lobes that are narrowly lanceolate, linear, linear-falcate or lancefalcate, leaf sinuses that are less than I cm wide, and primary leaf lobes that are less than 1.5 cm wide. The character that Steyermark (1963) used to distinguish the two species, hairs on stems of C. bushii spreading or retrorse, versus hairs on stems of C. papaver appressed, is not reliable. Populations of C bushii exhibit both pubescence types. In the present treatment all the specimens of C. papaver from Missouri plotted by Steyermark (1963) are considered to be C. bushii.

Common Names

Bush's poppy-mallow