''Calochortus monanthus'' is a presumed extinct
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n species of flowering plant in the
lily family known by the common names single-flowered mariposa lily and Shasta River mariposa lily. It was
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 elsew ...
to northern
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 ...
.
[Ownbey, Francis Marion 1940. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 27(4): page 465]
/ref>
It is presumed extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
, having been collected and documented once over a century ago and never found again. The single known specimen was collected by botanist Edward Lee Greene
Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...
from a meadow on the banks of the Shasta River
The Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed 9 March 2011 in northern California in the United States. It dr ...
, near Yreka
Yreka ( ) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,807, reflecting a meager increase fro ...
in Siskiyou County, California, in June 1876.[
]
Description
''Calochortus monanthus'' had an unbranching stem and an 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 ...
of a single erect, bell-shaped flower on a long peduncle. The flower had three sepal
A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...
s about 4 centimeters long and three toothed petal
Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...
s each between 4 and 5 centimeters. The petals were pinkish with a dark red spot at each base.Flora of North America, ''Calochortus monanthus'
/ref>
References
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Calochortus monanthus''USDA Plants Profile for ''Calochortus monanthus''
monanthus
Endemic flora of California
Flora of the Klamath Mountains
Extinct flora of North America
Natural history of Siskiyou County, California
Plants described in 1940
Plant extinctions since 1500
{{Liliales-stub