Burke: Montia fontana

	Montia fontana
	water blinks, water chickweed, annual water miner's lettuce
Habit	Delicate annual with slender, weak, decumbent, branching stems 3-20 cm. long, tending to root at the nodes.
Leaves	Leaves opposite, usually several pairs, rhombic-obovate to oblanceolate, 4-15 mm. long and 1-7 mm. wide, narrowed to short petioles.
Flowers	Flowers 3-7 in lax racemes, the pedicels recurved, slender, mostly 3-10 mm. long; sepals 2, 1 mm. long; corolla white, about equal to the sepals, the tube about equal to the 5 lobes, which are often unequal in length and width; stamens 3, attached to the corolla tube; style 1, stigmas 3, elongate
Fruits	Capsule obovoid, 1.5 mm. long.

	Montia fontana
Flowering time	March-June
Habitat	Wet places, including meadows, fields, lawns, and vernally moist sites, sometimes aquatic and floating, low to moderate elevations.
Distribution	Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to Idaho, eastward across northern Canada to eastern North America. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Native
Conservation status	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia
Web links	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Montia fontana

water blinks, water chickweed, annual water miner's lettuce

Habit

Delicate annual with slender, weak, decumbent, branching stems 3-20 cm. long, tending to root at the nodes.

Leaves

Leaves opposite, usually several pairs, rhombic-obovate to oblanceolate, 4-15 mm. long and 1-7 mm. wide, narrowed to short petioles.

Flowers

Flowers 3-7 in lax racemes, the pedicels recurved, slender, mostly 3-10 mm. long;

sepals 2, 1 mm. long;

corolla white, about equal to the sepals, the tube about equal to the 5 lobes, which are often unequal in length and width;

stamens 3, attached to the corolla tube;

style 1, stigmas 3, elongate

Fruits

Capsule obovoid, 1.5 mm. long.

Montia fontana

Flowering time

March-June

Habitat

Wet places, including meadows, fields, lawns, and vernally moist sites, sometimes aquatic and floating, low to moderate elevations.

Distribution

Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to Idaho, eastward across northern Canada to eastern North America.

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Origin

Native

Conservation status

Not of concern

Sibling taxa

M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia

Web links