A N F Keys
1 Plants of chaparral; leaves with conspicuous blades mostly restricted to base and lowermost stem, and bractlets < flowers; blades of leaves and bractlets smooth; flowers < 4 mm across, sessile or subsessile, spurred, greenish .. Piperia
1' Plants of wet springs and along creeks; leaves with conspicuous blades basal and cauline, including bractlets > flowers; blades of leaves and bractlets pleated from veins; flowers 13−15 mm across, with pedicel 5 mm long increasing in fruit, lacking spur, colored rose to rose-purple with green and white and conspicuous, darker veins .. Epipactis gigantea [pics]
1 Spur of perianth (corolla) 8.5−11 mm long; only 1 bractlet subtending each flower; flowers 3−3.5 mm across; lateral sepals 2.7−3 × 1.3−1.5 mm; lateral petals 2.5−3 × 1.4−1.5 mm, labellum 2.5−3 × 1.7−2 mm .. Piperia elongata [pics]
1' Spur of perianth (corolla) to 6.5 mm long; 2 bractlets subtending each flower
2 Flowers 4 mm across; lateral sepals 3−3.5 × 1−1.5 mm; lateral petals 3 × 1−1.5 mm, labellum 4 × 3 mm .. Piperia unalascensis [pics]
2' Flowers 5−6.5 mm across; lateral sepals 3.6−3.8 × 1.7−1.9 mm; lateral petals 3−3.3 × 1.9−2 mm, labellum ± 3.2 × 3 mm .. Piperia cooperi [pics]
The text of the above keys used with permission from
A Naturalist's Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills, California
© Copyright
Barry A. Prigge and Arthur C. Gibson
2013