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Owl's-Clover
Castilleja densiflora
1998
The colorful parts of the Owl's Clover are the small, leaf-like pink bracts associated with an inflorescence. Here the three lower petals are white, tinged yellow; the upper pink-fringed pompom is the top two, fused petals. The gray ball of a stigma protrudes. The yellow color guides the pollinator if it should be a bee; however, the Castillejas of the open communities in temperate North America have had an evolutionary radiation specifically of bird-pollinated flowers. They are red and tubular and their flowering is timed to migrating pollinators. Because each plant has only a few flowers available at a time, the likelihood of outcrossing, that is, fecundation by pollen from another flower of another individual, is increased.
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