Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Beavertail grass

(Calochortus coeruleus)

galery
en

Description

Calochortus coeruleus, often misspelled as Calochortus caeruleus, is a bulbous plant of the lily family. It is known by the common name beavertail grass or blue star tulip The plant is endemic to California. It is found only in the North California Coast Ranges, Southern Cascade Range, and Northern Sierra Nevada. Calochortus coeruleus is a distinctive plant bearing flowers with light blue spade-shaped petals covered in brushlike hairs. The botanical name Calochortus caeruleus is not accepted, being an orthographic variant (misspelling) of Calochortus coeruleus.Watson in coining the name in 1875 spelled it ""caeruleus"" but he also cited Kellogg's 1863 name Cyclobothra coerulea as basionym Calochortus /ˌkæləˈkɔːrtəs, -loʊ-/is a genus of flowering plants in the lily family. The group includes herbaceous, perennial and bulbous species, all native to North America (primarily the Western United States). The genus Calochortus includes mariposas (or mariposa lilies) with open wedge-shaped petals, globe lilies and fairy lanterns with globe-shaped flowers, and cat's ears and star tulips with erect pointed petals. The word Calochortus is derived from Greek and means beautiful grass Calochortus flowers have six tepals. Unlike most other Liliaceae, Calochortus tepals are in two series that differ in size and color.The outer three are generally narrower and more sepal-like, while the inner three are larger, usually with bright marks at the base.They may be described as petals. The flowers are borne on a stem that arises from a bulb, generally in the spring or early summer. Flowers can be white, yellow, pink, purple, bluish, or streaked. The insides of the petals are often very 'hairy'. These hairs, along with the nectaries, are often used in distinguishing species from each other

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order:Liliales
Family:Liliaceae
Genus:Calochortus
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