Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Scrophulariales

Family: Scrophulariaceae -- figwort

Common Name: red besseya

Species Code: BERU

Origin: Native to open grasslands, dry meadows and prairies of Washington and Oregon east of the Cascades and east to Idaho and western Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a short caudex, 30-50 cm tall, villous-puberulent throughout when young, becoming glabrous with age.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long-lived

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves petiolate, 2-12 cm long, elliptic-ovate to subrotund, margins with coarse, rounded teeth: cauline leaves reduced upward, sessile.

Mature height: 12-20 inches

Flowers: many, dense, borne on a stalk which lengthens as the fruit matures; calyx, filaments and anthers red, calyx 3-5 mm long; corolla lacking or vestigial.

Flower color: red

Bloom: April

Bloom starts on: early April

Bloom ends on: late April

Fruit: capsule, 5-6 mm long, broadly oval and flattened; seeds 1.5-2 mm wide, saucer-shaped, brown.

Characteristics:
Synthyris rubra in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Older floras may include it in Synthyris, but Hufford (1992) demonstrated that it belonged in a separate genus.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a caudex.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a capsule.

Comments: One of the earliest wildflowers on the Palouse.

Sun requirement: full sun

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall or early spring

Stratification: extended cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: late June

Seed first harvest: medium difficulty

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: late June

Seed comments: slow growing, small plants, harvest seed when the capsules begin to split.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
Germinates at 15^oC in dark (Chirco & Turner 1986).
Only 4% germination at 15^oC in dark (Maguire & Overland 1959).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Besseya rubra is not one of the more attractive native plants, but still deserves a place in the early spring garden. Has a rather drab flower and is even more dull in fruit, but the foliage is interesting. Easy to grow from stratified seed but can't be grown in a greenhouse. Needs cool temperatures to grow, but leaves will stay green most of the summer if it has moisture. Other names include Synthyris rubra, red besseya (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Chirco, Ellen, and Terry Turner. 1986. Species Without AOSA Testing Procedures. The Newsletter of the Association of Official Seed Analysts 60(2):2-66.

Hufford, Larry. 1992. Floral Structure of Besseya and Synthyris (Scrophulariaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 153:217-229.

Hufford, Larry. 1995. Patterns of Ontogenetic Evolution in Perianth Diversification of Besseya (Scrophulariaceae). American Journal of Botany 82:655-680.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 349, Pullman, WA. 15 p.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium