Balsamorhiza |
Balsamorhiza macrophylla |
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balsamroot |
cutleaf balsamroot, Idaho balsamroot, large-leaf balsamroot |
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Habit | Perennials, 10–45(–100) cm (taproots slender or massive, thick- or thin-barked; caudices unbranched or multibranched). | Plants 30–45(–100) cm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 | green, ovate to lanceolate, 20–50+ × 8–15 cm (pinnatifid, lobes lanceolate, 20–80+ × 10–40 mm, entire or ± dentate), bases ± cuneate, ultimate margins usually entire (plane or weakly revolute, ciliate), apices obtuse to acute, faces scabrous or piloso-hirtellous to pilose (at least abaxial usually gland-dotted as well). |
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Involucres | mostly campanulate or turbinate to hemispheric, 11–30+ mm diam. |
± hemispheric, 20–30 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 | 35–50+ 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 | lance-ovate or lanceolate to lance-linear, 12–30(–40) mm, equaling or surpassing inner (margins ciliate), apices acute to attenuate. |
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Heads | 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). |
usually borne singly. |
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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 | = 100 ± 2. |
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Balsamorhiza |
Balsamorhiza macrophylla |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jul. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Deep soils, rocky meadows, sagebrush scrublands, conifer forests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1000–2400 m (3300–7900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w North America |
ID; UT; WY
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Discussion | 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.) |
Balsamorhiza macrophylla is a high polyploid; it occurs sympatrically with B. sagittata. It evidently arose from hybridization between B. sagittata and B. hispidula. Balsamorhiza macrophylla has the multi-branched caudices and massive taproots of the former, and the leaf dissection of the latter. No hybrids with other species are known. Presumably, the high-polyploid chromosome complement precludes interbreeding. Plants of var. idahoensis are smaller, are known only from southwestern Idaho and northeastern Utah, and differ from var. macrophylla by being pilose, with strongly shaggy-pilose involucres. More study may determine that var. idahoensis merits specific rank. The Utah populations are not well understood and deserve attention. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 93. | FNA vol. 21, p. 98. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae | Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Balsamorhiza > subg. Balsamorhiza | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | B. hookeri var. idahoensis, B. macrophylla var. idahoensis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Hooker ex Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 349. (1840) | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 350. (1840) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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