Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu |
Chorizanthe brevicornu |
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brittle spineflower |
brittle spine flower |
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Habit | Plants 0.5–3(–5) × 0.5–3 dm. | Plants spreading to erect, 0.5–3(–5) × 0.5–3 dm, thinly pubescent, often with appressed hairs, infrequently somewhat strigose or glabrate. | ||||
Leaves | blades oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5–3(–4) × 0.1–0.3(–0.5) cm, apex acute. |
basal; petiole 0.5–2 cm; blade oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or spatulate, (1–)1.5–3(–4) × 0.1–1 cm, pubescent. |
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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. |
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Involucres | distinctly and prominently ribbed at maturity. |
1, green, 3–5 mm, not corrugate, thinly strigose; teeth divergent, 0.4–1.2 mm; awns uncinate, 0.2–0.5 mm. |
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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. |
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Achenes | dark brown, lenticular, 3–4 mm. |
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2n | = 38, 40, 42, (46). |
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Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu |
Chorizanthe brevicornu |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Jul. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy places, mixed grassland, saltbush, creosote bush, and sagebrush communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands | |||||
Elevation | -60-3000 m (-200-9800 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora) |
AZ; CA; ID; NV; OR; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Variety brevicornu is known only from the warm Mojave and Sonoran deserts. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 470. | FNA vol. 5, p. 469. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | unknown | Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 177. (1859) | ||||
Web links |