Diplacus puniceus
Diplacus puniceus, commonly known as the red bush monkeyflower, San Diego monkey flower, or mission diplacus, is a species of perennial shrub native to coastal southern California and northern Baja California. It is characterized by a relatively small and broad corolla for Diplacus, a lack of glandular hairs, and dark orange or red flowers, adapted to hummingbird pollinators.
Description
This plant is a glabrous evergreen subshrub or shrub, growing perennially. The entire plant on average is tall and wide.The leaves are generally Glossary of [leaf morphology|shaped] linear-lanceolate, and more or less entire, with the tip of the leaves acute. The leaf margins are tightly rolled under, and the leaf is uniformly green, lacking hair. There are two to four flowers emerging per node. The pedicels are 9 to 22 mm long, the calyx is 19 to 27 mm large, and the throat of the corolla tube is 27 to 35 mm long. The corolla is slightly decurved, and colored a dark orange to red.
Flowering is from March to June.
Taxonomy
This plant has a chromosome count of 2n = 20. It is known to hybridize with Diplacus ×australis. It is suspected to be one of the parents of D.×australis, along with D. longiflorus.The type specimen was collected from San Diego in 1836 by Thomas Nutall.