Purple Owl's-clover © Susan Cole Kelly

Elongated Clusters

Description An erect, little plant with a rose and yellow or rose and white flower cluster; flowers and flower bracts velvety and rose-purple on divided tips.
Flowers: Corolla 1/2-1 1/4" (1.5-3 cm) long, bilaterally symmetrical, strongly angled upward; lower corolla lip forming a white or yellow, 3-lobed pouch seeming to peer from bracts, with 3 tiny teeth at end; upper corolla lip short, hooked, velvety, rose-purple, forming a small beak above pouch.
Leaves: 1/2-2" (1.5-5 cm) long, divided into few very narrow segments.
Fruit: Capsule, about 1/2" (1.5 cm) long.
Height: 4-16" (10-40 cm).

Flower March-May.

Habitat Fields, deserts, and open, wooded areas.

Range Southern California to southern Arizona and northern Mexico.

Discussion Following a wet spring, acre upon acre is carpeted with this beautiful wildflower. The Spanish name, Escobita, means “little broom” and describes the flower cluster. The origin of the English common name is unknown, but it may refer to the swollen, head-like ends of the erect corollas that seem to peer from the bracts as owls peer from the leaves of a tree. Careful study has demonstrated that this plant is not an Orthocarpus, as previously classified (O. purpurascens), but instead belongs to a lineage of Castilleja.