Laguna Mountains jewelflower is a species I only recently discovered I had pictures of but had misidentified as Caulanthus major.  The Jepson Manual describes it as rare, inhabiting montane coniferous forest to about 8000' in the eastern Transverse Range and the Peninsular Range, and blooming from June to July.  These pictures were taken at Snow Valley and Heaps Peak Arboretum in the San Bernardinos and on the Devil's Slide trail above Idyllwild.  It is a glaucous, slender-stemmed perennial rising from a woody root crown, most single- or few-branched. The thickish, petioled basal leaves are obovate to broadly oblanceolate and often dentate above the middle.  The cauline leaves are somewhat reduced and auriculate-clasping.  The inflorescence is generally open and lacks bracts.  The calyx is ± urn-shaped with generally erect sepals that are light green in bud and become light yellow to white at anthesis when the calyx is almost closed.  The sepals often appear keeled because of their raised edges.  The petals are slightly exserted from the calyx.  The fruit is a subsessile, linear silique, ascending or spreading and generally straight, containing a brown, oblong, winged seed.  This species prefers dry slopes in mostly yellow pine forest.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Streptanthus 2) bernardinus.
Pronunciation: strep-TAN-thus ber-nar-DEE-nus.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.