''Collinsia heterophylla'', known as purple Chinese houses or innocence, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

native to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

and the

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, whic ...

in northern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Description

''Collinsia heterophylla'' is an annual plant growing in shady places, in height. It can be found in most of California (other than desert regions) below about . It blooms from mid spring to early summer. Like other species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

''Collinsia'', which also includes the blue-eyed Marys, it gets its name from its towers of

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

s of decreasing diameter, which give the plants in full flower a certain resemblance to a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoi ...

. Dried in air, the seeds weigh about 1 mg each.

Varieties

*''Collinsia heterophylla'' var. ''austromontana'' *''Collinsia heterophylla'' var. ''heterophylla''

Taxonomy

The species was first described as ''Collinsia bicolor'' by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

in 1835, but this name proved to be a later homonym of ''Collinsia bicolor'' Raf. (described in 1824), necessitating the name change to ''C. heterophylla''. Despite this, the name ''C. bicolor'' is still sometimes used in references.USDA: Classification (taxonomy)
/ref>

Gallery

File:09-041 CHINESE HOUSES (collinsia heterophylla) (3481420327).jpg, ''Collinsia heterophylla'' is also known by the common name Chinese Houses. File:Collinsia heterophylla -158 (16396704370).jpg, Pressed and dried ''Collinsia heterophylla'' in an

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

. File:Collinsiaheterophylla1.jpg, ''Collinsia heterophylla'' blossoms on a stalk.

References

External links