Balsamorhiza hookeri |
Balsamorhiza |
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hairy balsamroot, hare's head balsamroot, Hooker's balsam root |
balsamroot |
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Habit | Plants 10–30 cm. | Perennials, 10–45(–100) cm (taproots slender or massive, thick- or thin-barked; caudices unbranched or multibranched). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect, branched mostly from bases. |
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Leaves | mostly basal; opposite or alternate; petiolate (bases persisting as fibrils); blades (mostly pinnately nerved, sometimes 3- or 5-nerved) either rounded-deltate to triangular-deltate with bases sagittate or cordate to truncate and margins entire or crenate (B. subg. Artorhiza), or blades mostly elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate to lance-ovate or oblong and often 1–2-pinnatifid or -pinnately lobed with bases mostly truncate to cuneate and (if not lobed) margins usually crenate, dentate, or serrate, seldom entire (B. subg. Balsamorhiza), faces usually hirsute, hispid, pilose, puberulent, scabrous, sericeous, strigose, tomentose, or velutinous and gland-dotted or stipitate-glandular, seldom glabrous. |
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Basal leaves | blades usually gray-green, narrowly to broadly lanceolate or ovate, (8–)20–30(–40) × 2–15 cm (1–2-pinnatifid, primary lobes oblong or lanceolate to linear, 5–100 × 0.5–15 mm, secondary lobes usually ± linear, spreading), bases ± truncate to broadly cuneate, ultimate margins usually entire (plane or revolute, ciliate or not), apices obtuse to acute, faces hirsute, sericeous, or strigose (and gland-dotted or finely stipitate-glandular). |
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Involucres | campanulate to hemispheric, 15–30 mm diam. |
mostly campanulate or turbinate to hemispheric, 11–30+ mm diam. |
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Receptacles | flat to convex, paleate (paleae persistent, conduplicate, at least at bases, chartaceous). |
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Ray florets | 5–21+, pistillate, fertile; corollas usually yellow to orange, rarely becoming brick red (B. rosea). |
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Ray laminae | 15–30(–45) mm. |
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Disc florets | (15–)50–150+, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow to orange, tubes much shorter than cylindric throats, lobes 5, ± deltate (style branches stigmatic in 2 barely distinct lines, appendages filiform). |
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Phyllaries | persistent, 8–20+ in 2–3+ series (subequal to unequal, outer equaling or surpassing inner). |
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Outer phyllaries | ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 10–24+ mm, seldom surpassing inner, apices acuminate to attenuate (margins usually ciliate). |
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Heads | borne singly. |
radiate, usually borne singly, rarely (2–3+) in ± corymbiform to racemiform arrays (peduncles ± scapiform, usually bearing 2+ leaves or bracts proximally or at mid length). |
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Cypselae | obscurely prismatic, weakly 3–4-angled (faces usually glabrous, strigose in some B. careyana and in B. rosea); pappi 0. |
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x | = 19. |
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2n | = 38. |
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Balsamorhiza hookeri |
Balsamorhiza |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–May(–Jul). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Rocky outcrops, dry meadows, sagebrush scrublands, basalt scablands (north), dry, open forests (south) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | (300–)1000–1500(–2900) m ((1000–)3300–4900(–9500) ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR; WA
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w North America |
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Discussion | At one time or another, most species of subg. Balsamorhiza have been synonymized under B. hookeri. Nevertheless, a number of taxa are justifiably segregated as species by their morphologic differences and geographic restrictions. One might logically choose either of two taxonomies: recognizing only two species in the entire genus, one representing subg. Artorhiza and the other subg. Balsamorhiza, or recognizing each slightly differing population as a species. Either course results in an unsatisfactory classification. The present classification is a compromise. A knotty problem persists. A central cluster of populations from eastern Washington to southeastern California display a number of minor and locally discrete morphologies. They tend to be less isolated from each other than are the peripheral populations, although some tend to mimic the latter ones in one or more characteristics. Their evolutionary history may be involved with past hybridizations with each other or with species of subg. Artorhiza, gene drift, and polyploidy. At present, it appears impossible to reach a satisfactory classification. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 12 (12 in the flora). Balsamorhiza ×bonseri H. St. John refers to a hybrid derivative involving B. sagittata and B. rosea. The plants have the habit of B. sagittata and the reddish ray corollas of B. rosea. The cypselae are hairy. Balsamorhiza ×terebinthacea (Hooker) Nuttall and B. macrophylla var. terebinthacea (Hooker) A. Nelson refer to hybrids derived from B. hookeri × B. deltoidea. In the key and descriptions here, “leaves” refers to basal leaves and “leaf blades” refers to blades of basal leaves, unless otherwise indicated. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 98. | FNA vol. 21, p. 93. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Balsamorhiza > subg. Balsamorhiza | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Heliopsis balsamorhiza, B. hirsuta, B. hirsuta var. lagocephala, B. hirsuta var. neglecta, B. hookeri var. hirsuta, B. hookeri var. lagocephala, B. hookeri var. neglecta, B. macrolepis var. platylepis, B. platylepis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 349. (1840) | Hooker ex Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 349. (1840) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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