Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual or perennial, slender and often much taller than wide, 15-70 cm, with erect main axis; solitary or sparsely branched with ascending straight branches; young plant with sparsely pubescent hairs as well as small glandular hairs, becoming glabrous with age.

Leaves: First in basal rosette, or no basal rosette at all; lower leaves 3-24 cm long by 0.4-0.7 cm wide, petioled, blades linear to narrowly elliptic, margins pinnately and coarsely lobed and toothed, stem leaves reduced above. Plants leafy when you, leafless or nearly so at flowering time.

Flowers: Vespertine (closed until 10 pm, open at 5 am) often 15-18 mm wide, petals 5-7 mm, bright yellow, flecked with red, fading orange, drying pink. Style, stigma, anthers, and filaments bright yellow.

Fruits: Capsules 4-8 cm long by 1-1.5 mm wide, slender, straight to slightly curved, turning downward.

Ecology: Found on rocky, gravelly, sandy and cinder soils of bajadas, plains, washes below 4,500 ft (1372 m); flowers February-June.

Notes: This plant is identifiable by how strikingly it looks like a mustard.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genera have medicinal and culinary uses.

Etymology: Camissonia is named for Ludolf Karl Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838) a German botanist, which californica is named for California.

Synonyms: Eulobus californicus, Oenothera californica, Oenothera leptocarpa

Editor: SBuckley, 2010