Harlequin Calico Flower

Downingia insignis Greene, Pittonia 2: 80. 1890
BoUlia intignt! Greene, I'illonia 2 126. 1890.
Plants slender, the stems attaining a maximum diameter of about 2 mm. at base, often tomewhat zigzag, (6) 10-24 (Ml) cm. hich, the whole plant glabrous or the capsule sometimes minutely scabrous; leaves 1-2 mm. wide by 5-15 mm. long; inflorescence 4-12 (20) cm. long, loosely 1-8(I6-) flowered (the mean about 5 flowers), the axis often poorly defined and overtopped by the tips of the capsules even of the lower flowers; flower-bracts 1-5 mm. wide by 6-20 mm. long, mostly about 2-6 times as long as wide, elliptic to ovate, obtuse, rounded or sometimes subacute; corolla 9-15 mm. long, glabrous, sky-blue (according to Greene), the veins darker, the lower lip with central white area (this sometimes with two oblong parallel green spots), and two low golden-yellow folds in a field of dark violet-purple, or the latter reduced to three purple spots at the summit of the tube; corolla-tube (3.0) 3.5-5.0 mm. long, measured at dorsal sinus 4.5-6.0 mm., broadly funnelform (campanulate according to Greene), the lateral sinuses deeper than the dorsal one; two upper lobes ascending and parallel, elliptic, acute, 2-3 mm. wide by 6-10 mm. long; lower lip concave, usually exceeded in length by the two upper corolla-lobes, not reflexed, not forming an angle with the tube, the three lobes oblong to ovate, acute or mucronate, 2.5-7.0 mm. long; filament-tube (7.0) 9.0-10.5 (1 1.5) mm. long, glabrous, the filaments united very nearly their whole length; anther-tube 2.4-3.0 (3.5) mm. long, 1.0-1.3 mm. in diameter, usually strongly incurved and standing about at right angles to the filament-tube; anthers a dirty white in color, the cells hardly darker than the connectives, all the anthers minutely granular-roughened over the whole surface, the two shorter anthers white-tufted at tip, each with a short hornlike process in addition; hypanthium linear, enlarged in fruit, the mature capsule terete or slightly angled, linear or narrowly subulate, usually strongly appressed, 0.8-1.5 (2.0) mm. in diameter by (25) 45-80 mm. in length ; lateral walls tough when dry and ruptured with difficulty, with no evidence of impressed or scarious valves; calyx-lobes elliptic, obtuse or rounded, ascending, 1-2 (3) mm. wide by 3-8 (12) mm. long, usually broadest about the middle; seeds not twisted.
Type locality; Fields of the lower Sacramento Valley near Elmira, Solano County, California, Greene (herb. Greene!).
Distribution; Great Valley of California, from Stanislaus County northward; Lassen and Modoc Counties, California; Washoe Coimty, Nevada.

Downingia insignis is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common names harlequin calicoflower and cupped downingia. This showy wildflower is native to the western United States from California to Idaho, where it is a resident of lakesides and vernal pool ecosystems.