Pink Spineflower

Chorizanthe membranacea has long been considered an isolated element among the spineflowers. The strict, upright habit, numerous basal and cauline leaves, and broad, continuous, membranous margins of the involucre all reflect that isolation. Pink spineflower is widespread and often locally common in the Coast Ranges of southwestern Oregon and California and on the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada southward to the Transverse Ranges and the Tehachapi Mountains of Ventura and Kern counties, California.

Plants 1-6(-10) × 0.5-3(-5) dm, woolly-floccose. Leaves basal and cauline; petiole 0.1-0.5(-0.8) cm; blade linear to narrowly oblance-olate, (1-)1.5-5 × 0.1-0.3 cm, thinly to densely floccose adaxially, densely tomentose abaxially. Inflorescences strict, white to greenish, open; bracts usually 2, opposite, rarely in whorls of 3-5, short-petiolate, acerose, similar to proximal leaf blades only reduced, 0.3-3 cm × 1-3 mm, awns straight, 0.5-1 mm. Involucres usually congested in small terminal clusters of 1-3 at node of dichotomies, urceolate, ventricose basally, 3-angled, 6-ribbed, 3-4 mm, not corrugate, with conspicuous, white margins extending across sinuses, tomentose to floccose or glabrate with age, greenish to brownish; teeth 6; awns uncinate, 0.7-1.5 mm. Flowers 1(-2), slightly exserted; perianth white to rose, subcylindric, (1.5-)2.5-3 mm, densely pubescent abaxially; tepals connate 2/ 3 their length, slightly dimorphic, entire and rounded apically, those of outer whorl obovate, those of inner whorl spatulate; stamens slightly exserted; filaments 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous; anthers pink to red, oval, 0.2-0.3 mm. Achenes 2.5-3 mm. 2n = 38, 40, (42), 80, 82, 84.

Calif., Oreg.

Flowering Apr-Jul.

Sandy to gravelly or rocky flats and slopes, mixed grassland and chaparral communities, oak-pine woodlands; 40-1400(-1600)m.

Eriogonella membranacea (Bentham) Goodman

Chorizanthe membranacea is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name pink spineflower. It is native to Oregon and California, where it is widespread and in some areas quite common. It can be found in a wide variety of habitats.

This herb grows erect to a maximum height near 1 metre (3.3 ft). It is woolly in texture and most of its parts may bear a pink tint. The leaves are mostly linear in shape and they may occur along the stem as well as at the base. The longest may reach 5 centimeters.

The inflorescence is a dense cluster of flowers, each surrounded by a unit of six fused bracts which are generally white to pinkish in color. The bracts are tipped with hooked awns. The flower itself is just a few millimeters long, white to pink, and quite hairy. There are sometimes small inflorescences located in the cauline leaf axils along the stem.

Chorizanthe membranacea is easily distinguished from other spineflowers by its relative abundance of leaves, its height and upright habit, and the fusion of the bracts of the involucre into a continuous body.