Piperia elongata

Plants (9-)14-130 cm. Stems ± uniform toward tuberoid, 1-12 mm diam. distal to leaves; bracts 4-22. Leaves prostrate; blade 7.5-32 × 1-8.4 cm. Inflorescences sparsely to densely flowered, (3.5-)6-70 cm; rachis usually longer than peduncle; bracts 5-20 mm. Flowers green; fragrance when present nocturnal, faint, harsh to honeylike; sepals 2.4-6 × 1.1-3 mm; dorsal sepal ovate; lateral sepals spreading to recurved, ± obliquely lanceolate to oblong; petals erect-spreading, ± falcate, ovate-attenuate, 3-6 × 1.5-2.5 mm, inner margins forming U; lip becoming strongly deflexed, triangular-lanceolate, 2.1-5 × 1.2-3.4 mm; spur curved, mostly deflexed, (7-)9-15(-18) mm; viscidia broadly elliptic-ovate, 0.4-0.6 × (0.2-)0.3-0.4 mm; rostellum blunt. Capsules 4-11 mm. Seeds cinnamon brown. 2n = 42.

Flowering May--Sep. Forest chaparral, dry, open sites, usually away from the immediate coast; 0--1600 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

Plants of the California Channel Islands are smaller, have narrower viscidia than typical plants, and flower earlier (May-June).