Caltha leptosepala
Caltha
broad-leaf caltha, broad-leaf marshmarigold, elkslip, mountain marsh-marigold, white marsh-marigold, White Mountain marsh-marigold
marsh-marigold, populage
leafless or with 1 leaf, erect.
blade unlobed, oblong-ovate to orbiculate-reniform or cordate, margins entire, dentate, or crenate.
blade oblong-ovate to orbiculate-reniform, largest 1.5-11.5(-15) × 1-13cm, margins entire or crenate to dentate.
1-2(-4)-flowered.
terminal or axillary, 1-6-flowered cymes or flowers solitary, to 22 cm;
bracts leaflike, not forming involucre.
15-40 mm diam.;
sepals white to yellow (abaxially bluish), 8.5-23 mm.
bisexual, radially symmetric;
sepals not persistent in fruit, 5-12, white, pinkish, yellow, or orange, plane, oval-orbiculate to narrowly obovate, 4-23 mm;
petals absent;
stamens 10-40;
filaments filiform;
staminodes absent between stamens and pistils;
pistils 5-55, simple;
ovules 15-35 per pistil;
style 0.1-2 mm.
follicles, aggregate, sessile or stipitate, linear-oblong to ellipsoid, sides prominently veined or not;
beak terminal, straight or weakly curved, 0.2-2 mm.
elliptic, 1.9-2.5 mm.
brown, elliptic to broadly elliptic, rugulose.
4-15, spreading, short-stipitate or sessile, linear-oblong;
bodies 10-20 × 3-4.5 mm;
style and stigma straight or curved, 0.5-1.8 mm.
=8.
=48,96.
Caltha leptosepala
Caltha
Caltha leptosepala is morphologically complex, and a number of segregate taxa have been described. Plants are most commonly assigned to two species, however. Caltha leptosepala in strict sense is found in the Rocky Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico north to Alaska and is characterized by longer-than-broad leaves with small, nonoverlapping basal lobes, solitary-flowered inflorescences, and sessile follicles. Plants in the Coast Ranges of central California north to the coastal islands of southern Alaska, distinguished by broader-than-long leaves with large, overlapping basal lobes, 2-flowered inflorescences, and stipitate follicles, have been called C.biflora. My comparison of specimens from the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Ranges indicated that no clear distinction could be made (table 1). While plants are often distinctive in the southern part of their range, a continuous intergradation between the two extremes exists over much of their range.
Table 1: [see original page on floranorthamerica.org]
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 10 (3 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stems leafless, or with 1 leaf; sepals white to yellow, not orange or pinkish. | C. leptosepala |
1. Stems leafy; sepals white, yellow, or orange, or pinkish. | → 2 |
2. Stems creeping or floating, rooting at nodes; sepals white or pinkish, 4–7(–8) mm; follicles 20–55, bodies 3.2–6.5 mm; seeds 0.5–0.8 mm. | C. natans |
2. Stems erect, or sprawling with age and then producing shoots and roots at nodes; sepals yellow or orange, (6–)10–25 mm; follicles 5–15(–25), bodies 8–15 mm; seeds 1.5–2.5 mm. | C. palustris |
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