SoCal Pacific Coast wildflowers - 3

Grows at the top of the cliffs that overlook the beach. Pic taken at the little park that lies near the northern end of N Torrey Pines Road (for the locals)

The flowers are a bit far but it looks like Camissonia bistorta

Regards

Carlos

or maybe a species of Calylophus ? I;m hardly a native expert, but maybe...

What time of day? Reminds me of Oenothera.

Time of day is afternoon

Hmmm, I wasn't familiar with the Calylophus name. Compared to these photos http://plants.usda.gov/java/imageGallery?category=sciname&txtparm=Calylophus&familycategory=all&growthhabit=all&duration=all&origin=all&wetland=all&imagetype=all&artist=all©right=all&location=all&stateSelect=all&cite=all&viewsort=25&sort=sciname
nomosno's flowers are quite smooth, not crinkly.

It sure looks familiar.

Edited to add: finally found a description saying one of the differences between the Calylophus and Oenothera is the latter opens in the evening, the former during the day. Also, they are native to AZ, CO, KS, NE, NM, NV, OK, SD, TX, UT, WY, not CA.

This message was edited Apr 1, 2009 9:48 AM

Carlos is the winner IMO: it is southern suncup - what a perfect name for this little flower, it is southern, cup-shaped (OK, watercooler-papercup-shaped), Sun-colored flower that turns towards the Sun

I think you're right. Here's a pic of my Camissonia bistorta - I had to blow up the photo to see the red in the center like your flower, nomosno, which is why I didn't think it matched. But these on CalPhotos do. http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=Camissonia+bistorta&where-anno=1
Mine didn't reseed, so I'll have to try and find some seed - they really make a nice bright spot in the garden.

This is why I don't try to ID plants very often! It was good for practice, though. :-)

Had to add - guess what I found when I did a walk around the garden yesterday? Little Camissonia plants blooming! So glad it reseeded and perhaps some of the other annuals I got last year will pop up, too. I like 'planned' surprises!

... or 'planted' surprises?

^_^