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Gunsight clarkia

Clarkia xantiana

Also called Fort Miller Clarkia

Gunsight clarkia
Photo: Joe Decruyenaere, CC BY-SA 2.0

Gunsight clarkia is a native California annual wildflower in the evening-primrose family, with purple flowers that bloom in spring and early summer. It grows easily from seed in sunny, well-drained spots and dies after setting seed.

Family
Onagraceae (Evening-primrose family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water lightly while seedlings establish, then let the soil dry out between rains; it is adapted to dry summers.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or loamy soil; poor soil is fine.
Temperature
10–30 °C; hardy to light frost, protect below -2 °C.
How easy
Easy
Native range
California
Climate
temperate

About

Clarkia xantiana is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the common name gunsight clarkia. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the southern Sierra Nevada and its foothills and the adjacent Transverse Ranges. This is an erect annual herb with linear to lance-shaped leaves each up to 6 centimeters long. The inflorescence produces opening flowers and closed buds. The sepals stay fused as the petals bloom from one side. Each petal is up to 2 centimeters long and generally light to medium purple in color, sometimes with a dark, ringed spot on the petals of the upper whorl. The petal has a narrow claw and a wider blade which has two lobes at the tip with a small tooth between.

Other Clarkia plants

Chaparral clarkia · Farewell to spring · Glandular clarkia · Small's southern clarkia · Twolobe clarkia · Northern clarkia · Botta's clarkia · Fairy fans · Red ribbons · Speckled clarkia · Davy's clarkia · Campo clarkia

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Clarkia xantiana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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