Bowlesia incana R. & P. Apiaceae (Carrot Family) Native Bowlesia American Bowlesia

                                             May Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Slender branching annual with stellate pubescence; delicate, with weak trailing stems 1-5 dm. long, dichotomously branched; petioles slender, 2-8 cm. long; lf. blades thin, reniform to cordate in outline, 5-30 mm. broad, 5-7 lobed, the lobes entire or toothed; umbels on axillary pedicels 1-6-fld., on short peduncles, fls. white, minute; sepals rather prominent, fr. 1-1.5 mm. long, sessile or subsessile, broadly ovoid, stellate-pubescent, with narrow commissure and lacking ribs or oil-tubes, the dorsal part of each carpel turgid.

Habitat:  Shaded places below 2500 ft.; S. Oak Wd., Coastal Sage Scrub, etc.; n. L. Calif. through cismontane Calif. to cent. Calif.; desert edge; Santa Catalina, San Clemente, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz Ids.; to La.  March-April.

Name:  Named for William Bowles, 1705-1780, Irish Naturalist and traveler. (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 72).  Latin, incanus, hoary. (Jaeger 126).

General:  Occasional along the shaded, north facing bank between the Newporter Inn and San Joaquin Hills Dr. (my comment).        There are some striking cases of discontinuous distribution that probably represent relic distribution, with certain areas maintaining old species because of special soil and precipitation factors, for example species in the mountains of San Diego County and cismontane central California. California (largely cismontane) with the other states of our west coast and extreme South America have over 100 species closely related or perhaps identical:  Phacelia magellanica group, Gilia, Larrea, Prosopis, Apiaceae like Bowlesia incana, Sanicula crassicaulis and S. graveolens.  So far, sporadic long-distance transtropical dispersal seems to be a hypothesis for explanation of this discontinuity; most such species are self compatible so that a single introduction might suffice.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 7).      About 15 spp., mostly of Latin Am.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 72).

Text Ref:  Abrams Vol. III 218; Hickman, Ed. 142; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 72; Roberts 7.

Photo Ref:  May 1 87 #4,5,6; Feb 05 #21.

Identity: by John Johnson.  

First Found:  May 1987.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 300.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 3/3/05.  

                                  May Photo                                                                           February Photo