Nemophila menziesii
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Nemophila menziesii, known commonly as baby blue eyes or baby's-blue-eyes,[1] is an annual herb, native to western North America.[2][3]
Historically, it was eaten by cows kept by the Kawaiisu.[4]
Distribution
The plant is native to California, Baja California, and Oregon.[2]
It grows virtually throughout California at elevations from sea level up to almost Template:Convert. It grows in many types of habitats, including chaparral, valley grasslands, and montane locales.[3][2]
Description
Nemophila menziesii is variable in appearance. Lower leaves are stalked, lobed and oppositely arranged, Template:Convert with five to thirteen lobes, each entire or with one to three teeth. Upper leaves are more or less sessile and less lobed than lower. The stalk of the inflorescence is Template:Convert. Calyx lobes are Template:Convert. The flower is blue with a white center or all white, usually with blue veins and black dots near the center. It is Template:Convert wide. The tube is less than or equal to the filaments.
Varieties
The species includes three varieties:[3]
- Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria has white flowers with black dots, often with a faint blue tint or blue veins in the corolla. It is found on coastal bluffs or grassy slopes in Oregon, Northwestern California, the Central Coast of California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Nemophila menziesii var. integrifolia has blue flowers, with black dots at the center and deep blue veins. It is found in grasslands, canyons, woodlands, and slopes in the Central Coast, southern Coast Ranges, southwestern California, east of the Sierra Nevada range, and into the Mojave Desert and Baja California
- Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii has bright blue flowers with white centers that are generally dotted with black. It is found virtually throughout California, in meadows, grasslands, chaparral, woodlands, slopes, and desert washes, but it does not occur above Template:Convert.
Cultivation
It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant, as annual wildflower in native plant, water conserving, traditional, and wildlife gardens.
It can occasionally be found outside its native range as an introduced species, such as in Alaska.[5]
Gallery
-
Location unknown
-
Baby blue-eyes, central SLO County, CA
-
Nemophila menziesii 'Penny Black', Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
-
Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria
-
Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii), scanography from San Diego, CA
-
Nemophila menziesii var. integrifolia, close-up
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Nemophila
- Flora of California
- Flora of Baja California
- Flora of Oregon
- Flora of Wyoming
- Flora of the California desert regions
- Flora of the Cascade Range
- Flora of the Great Basin
- Flora of the Klamath Mountains
- Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
- Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
- Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
- Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges
- Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area
- Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains
- Natural history of the Transverse Ranges
- Plants described in 1833
- Flora without expected TNC conservation status
- Taxa named by George Arnott Walker Arnott
- Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker
- Pages with script errors