Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Erect annual 10-80 cm tall with simple or ascendingly branched stems.

Leaves: Blades sessile or short-pedicelled, lanceolate to spatulate, 2-8 mm wide, 1-5 cm long, acute to rounded at apex, sparsely puberulent to glabrate, slightly paler beneath than above.

Flowers: Hypanthium 2-6 mm high, bearing a ring of hairs one third up from base; sepals lanceolate, 5-10 mm long, usually free and reflexed in anthesis, sometimes more or less united at tips; petals lavender to purple, often with a dark purple spot at base when light-colored, rounded or truncate and usually somewhat erose at apex, 5-20 mm long, clawless; shorter stamens one third to one half as long as others; anthers 2-4 mm long.

Fruits: Capsule 2-3 mm thick, 1-3.5 cm long, 8-ribbed, sparsely to densely strigose-puberulent.

Ecology: Found in open and often grassy or shrubby hillsides and flats below 5,000 ft (1524 m); flowers April-May.

Notes: There are several other subspecies outside of Arizona. Ssp. quadrivulnera is all that has been collected in Arizona.

Ethnobotany: One subspecies was used as pinole and eye medicine, while another the seeds were dried and pulverized for food.

Etymology: Clarkia is named for William Clark (1770-1838) of Lewis and Clark fame, while purpurea means purple.

Synonyms: Clarkia quadrivulnera, Godetia pupurea var. parviflora, Godetia quadrivulnera, Godetia quadrivulnera var. vacensis

Editor: SBuckley, 2010