The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits

by Mary Elizabeth Parsons

BUTTER-AND-EGGS.

Orthocarpus erianthus, Benth. Figwort Family.

Slender, with many erect branches; stems and bracts usually dark-reddish; soft pubescent. Corolla.—Deep sulphur-yellow; the slender falcate upper lip dark purple; the tube very slender, but the sacs of the lower lip large and deep, their folds hairy within. (See Orthocarpus.) Hab.—Monterey County and northward; very common.

There are many species of Orthocarpus, and they are more numerous in Middle and Northern California and in the Sierras, few of them reaching the south. They are very difficult of determination, and are not well understood by botanists yet. A common name for the plants of this genus is "owl's clover."