Plant Species: Collomia linearis, narrow-leafed collomia
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots
Order: Solanales
Family: Polemoniaceae -- phlox
Genus: Collomia
Species: linearis
Variety:
Common Name: narrow-leafed collomia, tiny trumpet
Species Code: COLI2
Origin: Native to dry to moist, open areas over most of northern and western North America.
Rare: no
Form: forb, annual, 10-60 cm tall, finely puberulent, becoming glandular pubescent above, taprooted.
Duration: annual
Longevity: annual
Habitat Type: prairie
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU
Leaves: mostly alternate, lanceolate or linear, sessile, entire, 1-7 cm long, glabrous above, glaucous and slightly glandular beneath; leaves subtending the inflorescence generally wider than the rest.
Mature height: 4-14 inches
Flowers: borne terminally in a dense cluster; calyx viscid-villous, lobes triangular, up to 4 mm long at flowering, longer in fruit; corolla pink, bluish, or white; tube 8-15 mm long, slender and flaring to 5 lobes.
Flower color: pink
Bloom: May, June, July
Bloom starts on: late May
Bloom ends on: early July
Fruit: capsule, 3.5-4 mm long, 3 lobed; seeds 2.2-2.5 mm long, ellipsoid, brown, mucilaginous when wet.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Reproduces by seed, which is expelled explosively.
308,529 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
605,333 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
Taprooted annual.
n=8
Pollinated by sweat bees of the genus Chloralictus (Halictidae), bee flies of the genus Bombylius (Bombyllidae), hover flies (Syrphidae), and gossamer-winged butterflies (Lycaenidae) (Wilken 1977).
Flowers are perfect.
Produces both cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers in the inflorescence (Wilken 1978).
Diploids only are known (Wilken 1978).
The Gosiute people of Utah used the plants topically for bruises and wounds (Moerman 2003).
Fruit is a capsule.
Both self compatible and outcrossed.
Comments:
Sun requirement: full to partial sun
Soil moisture: xeric to mesic
Precipitation:
Fire:
Hazards:
Sowing time: fall
Transplant time: early spring
Stratification: none
Seed yield: high
Seed harvest: difficult
Seed first harvest: annual
Seed cleaning: easy
Planting duration: annual
Seed insect problem: none noted
Seed shatter: high
Seed size: medium
Seed harvest date: July/Aug
Seed comments: ripens indeterminately, seed is expelled explosively
Key words: annual upland
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
Other Propagation Information:
Germinates best at alternating day/night temperatures of 17/12 oC (McDonough 1969).
Reproduces by seed, which is expelled explosively.
Notes: Collomia linearis is an annual. Plants growing under low levels of competition grow larger and bloom for a longer time than those one usually sees in the wild. It dries up earlier than C. grandiflora and is not as large. Flowers are a run-of-the-mill pink and smaller than C. grandiflora. It also expels its seed explosively, so can move around rapidly. Can be sown in early spring, does better with fall seeding. Common names include narrow-leaved collomia, tiny trumpet (Skinner et al 2005).
References:
Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.
Hsiao, Yi-Chun, and T.I. Chuang. 1981. Seed Coat Morphology and Anatomy in Collomia (Polemoniaceae). American Journal of Botany 68:1155-1164.
McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.
Moerman, Dan. 2003. Native American Ethnobotany: a Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants. University of Michigan-Dearborn. Online at http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ Accessed 1/3/07.
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
USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf
Wilken, Dieter H. 1977. Local Differenciation for Phenotypic Plasticity in the Annual Collomia linearis (Polemoniaceae). Systematic Botany 2:99-108.
Wilken, Dieter H. 1978. Vegetative and Floral Relationships Among North American Populations of Collomia linearis Nuttall (Polemoniaceae). American Journal of Botany 65:896-901.