''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 (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

native to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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 Pacific Coast Range ...

in northern

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

Description

''Collinsia heterophylla'' is an

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. Globally, 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are ...

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 (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

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

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, 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 some ...

. 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 studie ...

in 1835, but this name proved to be a later homonym of ''Collinsia bicolor''

Raf. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

(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)
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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 biological specimen, 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 sh ...

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

References

External links