The
photo at right shows the stem and stem leaves of Scouler's popcorn flower as seen
in the drying mud of a pond dug into the grasslands along the crest of the Columbia
Hills to the north of The Dalles, OR...........June 1, 1997.
Also known as meadow plagiobothrys, Scouler's popcorn flower is an annual wildflower with several to many prostrate to ascending stems as much as 20 cm long arising from a taproot or fibrous root system. The herbage of the leaves and stems consists mostly of appressed, stiff and straight hairs. The leaves are linear in shape and up to 6.5 cm long and 5 mm wide and found mostly on the stems. The lowermost 1-4 pairs of leaves are opposite while the uppermost are alternate.
The flowers are scattered along the stems. The calyx is 2-4 mm long in fruit with lanceolate lobes. The small flowers are about 1-2 mm wide.
Scouler's popcorn flowre may be found in moist, poorlly drained soils that dry out by mid-summer. They may be found from the lowlands to elevations as high as 3000 meters in the mountains.
Scouler's popcorn flower may be found from British Columbia south to California and east to Saskatchewan and Manitoba and south to New Mexico.
