| Description |
This extremely variable species has erect (sometimes somewhat lax), 10-60 cm, often branched, bulbiferous stems that carry one to six upright, 3-7 cm flowers. The rounded tompointed petals can be white or any shade of pink, purple, red, orange, rust, brown, or yellow, sometimes bicolor or picotee-edged, and the base is often traced with reddish, brownish, or purplish marking. The infinite diversity of this species is impossible to describe, as there are exceptions to every feature of these flowers, the only constant being the square to rectangular, densely hairy (with yellow, orange, rust, brownish, reddish hairs), slightly depressed gland, with scant longer hairs on either side and above. The most common, and if it can be said, typical form of this species is white with the reddish base, a small dark blotch at the apex of this basal coloration, and a various colored (often orange-red or reddish) blotch centralized in the upper part of the petal (sometimes referred to as the upper petal blotch or 'Nectary guide'). Outside, the flowers are almost as varied as inside. The narrow, pointed sepals can be straight, recurved, or coiled, and although generally shorter than or equal to the petals, they can very occasionally be twice as long. The oblong, obtuse anthers can be creamy white, pink or lavender in color. The erect, linear capsules are 4.5-6 cm long, and three-angled. The linear basal leaf is 10-20 cm long and usually withered by anthesis, and the stem has reduced cauline leaves and 2-8 cm bracts. Calochortus venustus is the most variable species in the genus, but it is sometimes confused with C. superbus, which has a chevron-or-crescent-shaped gland and mostly ranges north of C. venustus. Calochortus vestae has a double-lunate gland, and its entire range is also further north than that of C. venustus. Calochortus argillosus, with which C. venustus is also confused, differs in its clay habitat, transversely elongate gland, patterning (lacks the upper petal blotch, and the central blotch is banded), and coloration. |
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