The photo above shows a close-up sideview of showy downingia as seen along the old highway to the southwest of Fishtrap Lake in eastern Washington...........June 2, 2008.
The photo above shows a close-up sideview of showy downingia as seen along the old highway to the southwest of Fishtrap Lake in eastern Washington...........June 2, 2008.
Note
the strongly two-lipped flower in the photo at right, along with the strongly
curved anther tube. Photographed west of the Tom McCall Nature Preserve.
Showy Downingia is a very attractive annual with several erect or ascending, simple or branched stems arising from 10-50 cm high. The herbage of typical plants is generally smooth, lacking hairs except around the hypanthium. The leaves are all sessile. The lower leaves are narrow and often deciduous by flowering time. The upper leaves range from 0.5- 2.5 cm long and up to 9 mm wide and are lanceolate to lance-ovate in shape.
The flowers are showy, with blue, pink or white ringing a white or yellowish central region. The corollas are 8-18 mm long and strongly two-lipped (See photos.) The calyx lobes are linear or narrowly elliptic in shape and range from 4-10 mm long. The anther tube is exserted from the tube and is fairly strongly incurved, the tip standing at a right angle to the filament tube (See photo at right and further below.).
Showy downingia may be found in vernal pools (usually as they are drying out), wet meadows, and edges of ponds and streams.
Showy downingia may be found from central and eastern Washington, Oregon, northern California, northern Idaho, and northern Nevada.
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Showy downingia as seen in vernally moist, alkaline soils along the old highway to the southwest of Fishtrap Lake in eastern Washington..........June 2, 2008. Closeflowered knotweed (Polygonum confertiflorum) can be seen at lower right in the photo at right.
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