Epilobium campestre
smooth spike-primrose
Onagraceae (Evening Primrose family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

Photograph

© Curtis Bjork     (Photo ID #24122)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Epilobium campestre
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Introduction

This species was reported for BC by Douglas et al. (2002), however lacked precise location information. It has since been rediscovered in the province by Curtis Bjork in the Nicola Basin, who found it "in three small, highly disturbed vernal pools in grassland and shrub steppe in the uplands between the Nicola River and Quilchena Creek 25-30 km east of Merritt" (Bjork 2008). Associated species are reported as Alopecurus carolinianus, Beckmannia syzigachne, Eleocharis macrostachya, Limosella aquatica, Myosurus minimus, Plagiobothrys leptocladus, Rorippa curvisiliqua, and Veronica peregrina (Bjork 2008).

References::

Bjork, Curtis. 2008. Vascular plants new to British Columbia. Botanical Electronic News 391.

Species Information

General:
Annual herb from a slender taproot; stems usually branched from base and spreading to ascending, 10-55 cm tall, peeling below; plant sparsely stiff-hairy to almost glabrous, pale-green.
Leaves:
Opposite near base, alternate above, lanceolate to egg-shaped, 8-35 mm long, finely toothed; unstalked or nearly so.
Flowers:
Inflorescence crowded in leafy spikes; flowers generally fertilized in the bud, not opening; hypanthium 0.3-1 mm long; petals 1-3 mm long, pink, deeply notched; sepals 0.7-2 mm long; stigmas sometimes nearly 4-lobed.
Fruits:
Capsules, cylindric, about 7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, tough, slightly curved, pointed but not beaked, 4-chambered; unstalked; valves mostly adherant to partitions, the axis breaking-up as seeds shed; seeds 6-14 per chamber, in 2 rows, 1-1.3 mm long, netted, glabrous, brownish, without tuft of hairs.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Illustration

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Habitat and Range

Vernally moist sites in the steppe zone; rare in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to SK and S to SD, UT, NV and CA; South America.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Epilobium pygmaeum (Speg.) Hoch & P.H. Raven