''Brodiaea stellaris'' is a species of flowering plant in the cluster-lily genus known by the common name starflower brodiaea. The bulb is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to northern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, where it grows on the serpentine soils of the North

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. P ...

. Flowering peaks in May iNaturalist, ''Brodiaea stellaris''
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Description

''Brodiaea stellaris'' is a perennial that produces a short

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

only a few centimeters tall which bears flowers on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

. Each flower has six blue-purple

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s up to 1.5 centimeters long. At the center of the flower are large white sterile stamens called staminodes which surround the distinctive forked fertile stamens.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
stellaris Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California Coast Ranges {{Asparagaceae-stub