Fleshy Porterella

Porterella carnosula (II. & A.) Torr. Rep. U. S Geol. vSurv. Terr. 5: 488. 1872.
Ij>belia carntisula H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 362. 1838.
/.aurenlia carnosula Bcnth.; A. Gray, Bot. Calif. 1: 444. 1876.
I'orUrella ezimia A. Nelson, Bull. Torrey Club 27: 270. 1900. (Nelson 6541. Rocky Ml. herb.!).
I.aurentia eximia A. Nelson in Coult. & Nels. Man. 475. 1909.
Stems erect, simple or with few lateral branches, rarely difTiusc and bushy, somewhat fleshy, very slender or sloutish, the maximum diameter at base about 4 mm.; entire plant smooth and glabrous, green, fcw-32 cm. high, occasionally with mature fruit when no more than 1.5 cm. high; cauline leaves fcw-20, soft and lax, early deciduous and often not persistent
• McVaugh 62X2, from Add, Lake County, Oregon. until flowering time, usually narrower than the flower-bracts, the blades sessile, entire or rarely sinuate in luxttfiant specimens, linear-subulate or rarely lanceolate, 1-2 (4) mm. wide, (4) 10-20 (30) mm. long, the tip acute to attenuate or almost capUlary; roots slender, fibrous; stem, in wet places, continued downward as an erect rootstock with roots at several nodes, plainly corky-parenchymatous below; inflorescence 6-20 cm. long (correspondingly less in dwarfed plants), loosely 1-15(25-) flowered; pedicels ebracteolate, spreading-ascending, slender (maximum diameter about 0.5 mm.), 5-20 (35) mm. long in fruit, expanded gradually into the base of the capsule, straight or arcuate; flower-bracts linear to ovate, similar to the foliage leaves but usually broader and often longer than these, 1-4 mm. wide by 4-18 (27) mm. long, mostly 2.5-6 times as long as wide; flower (9) 13-18 (20) mm. long, including hypanthium, with an odor said to resemble that of the cultivated heliotrope; corolla strongly zygomorphic, blue (rarely all white), with yellow or whitish eye and two folds at base of lower lip, the tube linear or slightly enlarged distally, its long axis slightly oblique to that of the hjTJanthium, (3.5) 4.5-6 mm. long, the two upper lobes erect, elliptic, 1.0-2.5 mm. wide, 3.55.5 mm. long, the lobes of the lower lip elliptic or obovate, apiculate, 2-6 mm. wide, 4.5-9 mm. long; filaments 3-6 (7) mm. long, coherent their whole length into a tube, free from the corolla; anther-tube 1.5-2.6 mm. long, gray, all five anthers minutely white-tufted at tip, the two shorter ones plainly so, and with short hornlike processes in addition; h>-panthium in anthesis narrowly obconic or turbinate, in fruit becoming turbinate or cylindric, long-acute and usually slightly oblique at base, (1.5) 2-3 mm. in diameter; ovary inferior or essentially so; placentation axile; capsule opening by apical loculicidal valves, (5) 7-10 (16) mm. long, wholly inferior or with 1-2 mm. of the tip not adherent to the hypanthium; calyx-lobes linear, varying to narrowly triangular or elliptic, entire, rounded or subacute at tip, about 1 mm. wide (rarely as much as 2.5 mm.), 3-8 (II) mm. long; seeds fusiform, light brown with minutely darkapiculate tips, slightly lustrous, about 1 ram. long.
Type locality: "Blackfoot River, Snake Country" (southeastern Idaho), Tobnie (NY!). Distribution: Northwestern Wyoming to southeastern Oregon, south in the mountains to northern Utah, Coconino County, Arizona, northern Nevada, and Tulare County, California.

Porterella is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the bellflower family containing the single species Porterella carnosula, which is known by the common name fleshy porterella, or simply porterella.

The species is native to the western United States from California to Wyoming, where it grows in moist spots, such as ponds or wet grasslands, sometimes just at the edge of the water or partially submerged. It is an annual herb producing an erect stem to a maximum height around 30 centimeters. The leaves along the stem are oval or triangular, those growing beneath the surface of the water more triangular in shape. They measure up to 1.5 centimeters long by half a centimeter wide. The inflorescence bears showy flowers which are quite similar in appearance to those of some species in sister genus Downingia. Each has a narrow tubular throat opening into a wide corolla with two narrow pointed upper lobes and three wider, rounded lower lobes each with a small tooth. The upper lobes are deep blue, and the lower lobes are a similar shade with an area of white and bright yellow near the throat. The stamens are fused into a single unit tipped with tiny toothlike anthers.

The genus is named for Thomas Conrad Porter.