Flora of North America species comparison

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Chorizanthe brevicornu

brittle spine flower
Habit Plants spreading to erect, 0.5–3(–5) × 0.5–3 dm, thinly pubescent, often with appressed hairs, infrequently somewhat strigose or glabrate.
Leaves

basal;

petiole 0.5–2 cm;

blade oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or spatulate, (1–)1.5–3(–4) × 0.1–1 cm, pubescent.
Inflorescences

green;

bracts 2, similar to proximal leaf blades only more reduced, 0.3–1(–1.5) cm × 1–2.5 mm, becoming sessile and scalelike at distal nodes, linear, acicular, awns 0.2–0.5 mm.
Involucres

1, green, 3–5 mm, not corrugate, thinly strigose;

teeth divergent, 0.4–1.2 mm;

awns uncinate, 0.2–0.5 mm.
Flowers

included;

perianth greenish white to white or pale yellowish white, cylindric, 2–4 mm;

tepals connate 3/4 their length, monomorphic, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, acute, entire apically;

stamens slightly exserted;

filaments distinct, 2–3.5 mm, glabrous;

anthers white to pale yellow, ovate, 0.3–0.4 mm.
Achenes

dark brown, lenticular, 3–4 mm.

Chorizanthe brevicornu
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; ID; NV; OR; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Chorizanthe brevicornu has stems and branches that easily disarticulate at the nodes. Dried specimens often are reduced to a mere jumble without careful handling. The vegetative fragments will not regenerate new plants, but the involucres (each with a single flower bearing a single achene) easily disarticulate from the parent plant, and with the aid of the awns on the teeth of the involucre, may be readily distributed.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 0.1-0.3(-0.5) cm wide; involucres prominently ribbed at maturity; Mojave and Sonoran deserts
var. brevicornu
1. Leaf blades broadly oblanceolate to broadly spatulate, 0.5-1 cm wide; involucres obscurely ribbed at maturity; Great Basin Desert and Snake River Plains
var. spathulata
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 469.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Chorizanthe > subg. Amphietes > sect. Fragile
Sibling taxa
C. angustifolia, C. biloba, C. blakleyi, C. breweri, C. clevelandii, C. corrugata, C. cuspidata, C. diffusa, C. douglasii, C. fimbriata, C. howellii, C. leptotheca, C. membranacea, C. obovata, C. orcuttiana, C. palmeri, C. parryi, C. polygonoides, C. procumbens, C. pungens, C. rectispina, C. rigida, C. robusta, C. spinosa, C. staticoides, C. stellulata, C. uniaristata, C. valida, C. ventricosa, C. watsonii, C. wheeleri, C. xanti
Subordinate taxa
C. brevicornu var. brevicornu, C. brevicornu var. spathulata
Name authority Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 177. (1859)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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