Orthocarpus imbricatus
Encyclopedia
Orthocarpus imbricatus is a species of flowering plant in the broomrape family
Orobanchaceae
Orobanchaceae, the broomrape family, is a family of flowering plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato...

 known by the common name mountain owl's clover. It is native to western North America from British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 to northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, where it grows in meadows and other mountain habitat.

Description

It is an annual herb producing a slender, hairy green stem up to about 35 centimeters tall. The lance-shaped leaves are up to 5 centimeters long. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 is a dense cylindrical spike of wide netted bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s with pinkish tips. The flowers just barely emerge from between the bracts. Each flower is about a centimeter long, its narrow, hooked, beaklike upper lip pink and its expanded, pouched lower lip yellowish.

External links

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