[Sidenote: =Escobita, Owl's Clover=
_Orthocàrpus densiflòrus_
=Purplish-pink
Spring
California=]
The Spanish name, which means "little broom," is very appropriate
for this pretty plant. The stiff, downy stem is from five to fifteen
inches tall and the downy leaves are light green and become tipped
with purplish-pink as they mount up the stalk. The flowers are
about three-quarters of an inch long and have a white lower lip,
which is tipped with yellow and has a crimson dot on each lobe, and
the straight, erect "beak" is crimson. The cluster is crowded with
purplish-pink and white bracts and though the flowers themselves are
not conspicuous the effect is feathery and very pretty, especially
when the plants grow in such quantities as to color a whole field
with soft pink, or when mixed with beautifully contrasting patches
of blue Lupine. This is common along the coast. _O. purpuráscens_,
common in the Northwest and Southwest, is similar, but it has a hairy
"beak," hooked at the tip, and the general effect is handsomer and much
brighter in color, but less feathery.
[Sidenote: =Owl's Clover=
_Orthocàrpus purpureo-álbus_
=Pink and White
Summer
Ariz., Utah, New Mex.=]
An interesting annual plant, quite pretty, about a foot high, the
stem sometimes branching and the branches suggesting those of a
candelabrum, clothed with soft, finely divided, dull green leaves
and ending in spikes of green bracts and pretty little flowers,
three-quarters of an inch long. The calyx is green, the upper lip of
the corolla is purplish-pink and the lower lip is swollen, three-lobed
and cream-white, turning pink in fading. This grows in dry places at
altitudes of from six to eight thousand feet. Only one of the branches
is given in the picture.
[Sidenote: =Owl's Clover=
_Orthocàrpus exsértus_
=White and pink
Spring, summer
California=]
A pretty little plant, from six to eight inches high, with hairy leaves
cut into narrow divisions and passing into pinkish-lilac bracts towards
the top of the stalk, which are mixed with pink and white flowers, each
about an inch long, so that the effect of the whole is a spike of pink
and white. The lower lip of the corolla is white and the upper lip is
pink, with a furry tip. This grows in fields. _O. attenuàtus_, common
in fields in the Northwest, is a slender inconspicuous kind, about
nine inches tall, with soft, thin, dull green leaves, most of them not
lobed, and pale green bracts, often tipped with white. The corollas are
dull white, the lower lip dotted with purple or yellow, and the whole
effect of the cluster is feathery, very slender, and pale in color.
[Illustration: Owl's-clover--O. purpureo-albus.
Escobita--Orthocarpus densiflorus.