''Leptosiphon harknessii'' ( syn. ''Linanthus harknessii'') is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name Harkness' flaxflower.

Distribution and habitat

The plant is native to western North America, from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

south through

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and eastward to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. It grows in open areas of several

coniferous forest Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

habitats, from in elevation.

Description

''Leptosiphon harknessii'' is a petite annual herb threadlike stem no more than about 15 centimeters long. The widely spaced leaves are each divided into very narrow linear lobes up to 1.5 centimeters long. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

at the tip of each branch of the stem is a single tiny flower, white or faintly blue in color, which is rolled up into a tube most of the time. The bloom period is June to August.

External links

Calflora Database: ''Leptosiphon harknessii'' (Harkness' flaxflower)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Leptosiphon harknessii''UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Leptosiphon harknessii''
harknessii Flora of British Columbia Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of Utah Flora of the Cascade Range Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Polemoniaceae-stub