Downingia pulchella
species of plant
Downingia pulchella is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common names flatface calicoflower and valley calicoflower. This showy, annual wildflower is endemic to California, where it is a resident of vernal pools and other wet places in the central part of the state from the Tehachapi Mountains to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Description
It produces an erect, branching stem which has usually one tubular flower at the top of each branch. The upper lip of the flower is made up of two narrow, pointed lobes which usually stick straight out and are lavender or white. The lower lip is the same color and made up of three fused lobes, each of which may have a tooth. In the center of the lower lip is a large white area with two bright yellow spots and smaller dark purple spots near the mouth of the tube. A large anther sticks out of the mouth of the flower on a stalk of fused stamens. The flower is one to two centimeters wide. The fruit is a capsule three to seven centimeters long.
“Downingia pulchella” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Downingia, pulchella and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Downingia pulchella” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Downingia, pulchella and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q1028730. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Downingia pulchella” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.