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fescue sandwort, mountain sandwort, slender mountain sandwort, thread-leaf sandwort

Photo is of parent taxon
Habit Plants cespitose to somewhat matted, green or often glaucous, with woody base.
Stems

erect to ascending, (3–)5–20(–25) cm, entirely glabrous or glabrous proximally, stipitate-glandular distally.

5–20 cm, glabrous.

Leaves

basal leaves abundant, persistent;

cauline leaves in 1–3 pairs, abruptly reduced distal to lowest pair;

basal blades erect, straight or often curved in one direction, filiform, (2–)4–8 cm × 0.5–1 mm, flexuous, herbaceous, apex acute or acuminate to weakly spinose, glabrous, sometimes stipitate-glandular, often glaucous.

Inflorescences

1–12(–18)-flowered, open or rarely subcongested cymes.

Pedicels

(2–)5–20 mm, glabrous or stipitate-glandular.

glabrous.

Flowers

sepals often purplish, 1–3-veined, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3–4.7 mm, to 5 mm in fruit, margins broad, apex broadly rounded to barely acute, glabrous or stipitate-glandular;

petals white, spatulate, 6–10 mm, 1.5–2.5 times as long as sepals, apex broadly rounded;

nectaries as depressed transverse cup at base of filaments opposite sepals, 0.3–0.7 × 0.1–0.3 mm.

sepals glabrous;

ovary glabrous.

Capsules

5–8 mm, valves at least sparsely stipitate-glandular or glabrous.

glabrous.

Seeds

brown to black, ellipsoid to ovoid with hilar notch, (1.2–)1.5–2(–2.5) mm, tuberculate;

tubercles rounded, elongate.

2n

= 22.

Eremogone capillaris

Eremogone capillaris var. capillaris

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Rock outcrops, dry, sandy hillsides, roadsides
Elevation 300-900 m (1000-3000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; ID; MT; NV; OR; WA; AB; BC; NT; YT; Asia (Siberia)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; NT; YT; Asia (Mongolia, Siberia)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

B. Maguire (1947, 1951) and subsequent workers separated these varieties of Eremogone capillaris by sepal length: (3–)3.5–4.5(–4.8) mm in var. americana and (3.6–)5–6(–6.6) mm in var. capillaris. Material available to us did not exhibit that distinction.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Pedicels and sepals glabrous
var. capillaris
1. Pedicels and sepals stipitate-glandular
var. americana
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 60. FNA vol. 5, p. 60.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Eremogone Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Eremogone > Eremogone capillaris
Sibling taxa
E. aberrans, E. aculeata, E. congesta, E. eastwoodiae, E. fendleri, E. ferrisiae, E. franklinii, E. hookeri, E. kingii, E. macradenia, E. pumicola, E. stenomeres, E. ursina
E. capillaris var. americana
Subordinate taxa
E. capillaris var. americana, E. capillaris var. capillaris
Synonyms Arenaria capillaris Arenaria capillaris var. nardifolia, Arenaria formosa
Name authority (Poiret) Fenzl: Vers. Darstell. Alsin., 37. (1833) unknown
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