Flora of North America species comparison

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Douglasia nivalis

snow douglasia, snow dwarf-primrose
Habit Plants loosely cespitose mats with branched caudex.
Stems

prostrate to ascending, loosely covered with marcescent, gray to light brown leaves (becoming remote in age).
Leaves

spreading, slightly reflexed in age, thin;

blade linear to oblanceolate, 5–2 × 1.5–4 mm, margins entire or distinctly toothed, apex obtuse, surfaces densely hairy, hairs minute, branched and stellate.
Scapes

10–70 mm, elongating little in fruit, densely stellate-pubescent.
Inflorescences

2–8-flowered, bracteate;

bracts 4–10, lanceolate to ovate, 3–8 × 2–3 mm, stellate-pubescent.
Pedicels

present, 1–10(–20) mm.
Flowers

calyx 4–7 × 3–5 mm, stellate-pubescent to glabrate;

corolla rose-pink, limb 8–12 mm diam., lobes 3–5 × 1–2 mm, margins erose or entire.

Douglasia nivalis
Phenology Flowering early-mid summer.
Habitat Sagebrush slopes, alpine ridges, talus
Elevation 700-2400 m (2300-7900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
WA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Previous treatments of Douglasia nivalis have recognized two varieties that differ in the degree of dentation on leaf margins. The most common is var. nivalis, with almost entire leaf blade margins, found in the Wenatchee Mountains and north to Chelan and Douglas counties. Variety dentata has more distinctly toothed leaves and is known only from the Wenatchee Mountains. Because there is a great deal of overlapping variation, particularly in the Wenatchee Mountains, those varieties are not given formal recognition here.

Presence of Douglasia nivalis in Canada is uncertain. The original collection was described by Lindley as collected on the Alberta–British Columbia border near Mount Robson; no other collections of the species from either province are known.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 267.
Parent taxa Primulaceae > Douglasia
Sibling taxa
D. alaskana, D. arctica, D. beringensis, D. gormanii, D. idahoensis, D. laevigata, D. montana, D. ochotensis
Synonyms D. dentata, D. nivalis var. dentata, Primula douglasii
Name authority Lindley: Quart. J. Sci. Lit. Arts [ 24]: 383. 1827 ,
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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