Doublehorn Calicoflower

Downingia bicornuta A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ed. 2 2': 395. 1886.
Plants few-25 (40) cm. high, entirely glabrous (hypanthiuin very rarely obscurely scabrous); leaves 0.4-1.0 (2.0) mm. wide by (3) 6-15 (20) mm. long; inflorescence few-12 (28) cm. long, loosely 1-10-(17-) flowered; flower-bracts linear to broadly lanceolate, usually 5-10 times as long as wide, 1-3 (4) mm. wide, 5-15 (28) mm. long, obtuse or subacute; corolla glabrous without, the tube densely white-bearded within on the lower side, the lower lip deep purplish-blue with a central area of white, yellow, or yellowish-green, this central area marked with two yellow or green spots, the upper lip purplish-blue, slightly darker than the lower; corolla-tube broadly fuimel-shaped, the lateral sinuses cut so deeply that the lower lip appears hinged, the distance from summit of hypanthium to lateral sinuses slightly less than that to dorsal sinus, the two upper lobes ovate or triangular, acute, 1.0-1.3 mm. wide by 4-7 (8.5) mm. long, the lower lip dark-purple at base with two ascending horns or nipples at the inner angle, the lateral margins folded into two less prominent nipples, making four in all in a transverse line, the lobes rounded or truncate, mucronulate; filament-tube (2.3) 3.0-4.0 (4.8) mm. long; anther-tube (1.8) 2.0-2.5 (3.0) ram. long, usually partially included in the corolla-tube and often concealed by the two upper corolla-lobes, the anthers minutely tufted at tip, smooth or sparsely bristly on the backs, the two shorter each with a recurved hornlike process from the apex, the processes tightly twisted together (rarely absent or not twisted); hypanthium linear, at maturity becoming linear to narrowly subulate, tapering very gradually from just above the base to the apex; capsule with lateral walls thin but tough and not easily fractured, the valves scarcely apparent even at maturity, or rarely conspicuous; caly.-lobes linear or narrowly elliptic, rounded at tip or bluntly pointed, widest near the middle, usually plainly of two lengths, (2.5) 3-8 (13) mm. long, often rotate-spreading; seeds not twisted, the markings very faint, longitudinal; placentation axile, the ovary bilocular.
Type locality: Chico, Butte County, California, Mrs. Bidwell (Grayl).
Twisted bristles 0.6-1.5 mm. in length; corolla-tube (measured at
lateral sinuses) 2.5-4.5 mm. long, blue, with purple veins. 4o. U. bicornuta var. bicornuta.
Twisted bristles 1.6-2.7 mm. in length; corolla-tube 1.5-2.6 mm.
long, usually with a brownish-yellow spot on the upper side. 4i. L>. bicornuta var. picla.
4a. Downingia bicornuta var. bicornuta McVaugh, Mem. Torrey Club 19': 27. 1941.
Downingia bicornuta A. Gray, loc. cit., as to type.
BoUlia bicornuta Greene, Pittonia 2: 127. 1890.
Dovmingia sikota Appleg. Contr. Dudley Herb. 1: 97. 1929. (Applegale, Stanford CI)
Corolla 9-19 mm. long, the tube (2.5) 3.0-4.0 (4.5) mm. long, blue, with darker veins, the lower side lighter-colored, with two white or yellow longitudinal spots or streaks, the two upper lobes divergent, erect or recurved, the lower lip usually plane or nearly so; hornlike processes of the apex of the anther-tube 0.6-1.5 mm. long; mature capsule 1-2 mm. in diameter by 35-65 (90) mm. long.
DmntiBUTlON: Soutbea.item Oregon and southwestern Idaho to northern ond we.stcrn Nevada, moatly at elevations of 1200-1800 m.; southward, often at lower elevations, to the northrrn end of the interior valley of California. 4b. Downingia bicornuta var. picta Hoover, Leafl. W. Bot. 2: 4. 1937.
Flowers and fruit slightly smaller than in var. bicornuta; corolla 7-10 mm. long, the tube (1.5) 2.0-2.6 mm. long, with a brownish-yellow spot on upper side, the lower lip strongly concave, the two upper lobes white or pale blue, often tipped with darker blue, not divergent but directed toward each other so that the tips cross, sharply reflexed and appressed to the corolla-tube; hornlike processes of the anther-tube 1.6-2.7 mm. long, often longer than the anthers themselves; mature capsule 0.5-1.5 mm. in diameter by 35-57 mm. long.
TVpb locality: Seven miles soiitheast of LeGrand, Merced County, California, Hoover 1083 (herb. Jepson!).
Distribution: Great Valley of California, particularly in the San Joaqum Valley.