Dudley's lousewort

Description

Pedicularis dudleyi is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae known by the common name Dudley's lousewort. It is endemic to central California, where it is known from about ten scattered occurrences along the coast and in the coastal mountain ranges. It has been found in three locations along the Central California coast. The species was named for 19th-century Stanford University botanist William Dudley. The species is a hairy perennial herb and produces one or more stems 10 to 30 centimetres (3.9 to 11.8 in) tall from a caudex. The leaves are up to 26 centimetres (10 in) long and divided into many toothed lobes or lobed leaflets. The inflorescence is a raceme of flowers occupying the top of the stem. Each flower is up to 2.4 centimetres (0.94 in) long and club-shaped, with a hood-like upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip. The flower is light pink or purplish with darker markings. At the base of the flowers are long-haired bracts and woolly sepals. The fruit is a capsule roughly 1 centimetre (0.39 in) long containing seeds with netted surfaces.