Eremogone congesta |
Eremogone congesta var. crassula |
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ball-head sandwort, capitate sandwort |
ball-head sandwort, rough sandwort |
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Habit | Plants tufted or sometimes matted, green, not glaucous, with woody base. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | ± erect, 3–40(–50) cm, glabrous or often stipitate-glandular. |
15–20 cm, glabrous. |
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Leaves | basal leaves persistent or not; cauline leaves in 3–5 pairs, similar, but reduced distally; basal blades erect-ascending to arcuate-spreading, subulate or needlelike to filiform, (0.8–)2–11(–14) cm × 0.4–2 mm, flexuous or rigid, herbaceous to ± fleshy, apex obtuse to sharply acute or spinose, glabrous, sometimes glaucous. |
basal blades curved inward, needlelike, (1.5–)2–3 cm × 1–2 mm, ± fleshy. |
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Inflorescences | 3–50+-flowered, congested and capitate or sometimes open, umbellate cymes. |
capitate, rounded, dense cymes; bracts closely enveloping sepals. |
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Pedicels | 0.1–7(–15) mm or ± absent, usually glabrous, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
± absent, mostly shorter than 0.1 mm, glabrous. |
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Flowers | sepals 1–3-veined, sometimes obscurely so, ovate to lanceolate, 3–6.5 mm, not expanding in fruit, margins narrow, apex obtuse or acute to acuminate, rarely spinose, glabrous (or glandular in var. prolifera); petals white, oblong, 5–8(–10) mm, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex entire to slightly emarginate; nectaries as lateral and abaxial mound with crescent-shaped groove at base of filaments opposite sepals, 0.3 × 0.15–0.2 mm. |
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Capsules | 3.5–6 mm, glabrous. |
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Seeds | reddish brown to black, broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, 1.4–3 mm, tuberculate; tubercles low, rounded, often elongate. |
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Sepals | conspicuously 1- to weakly 3-veined, 3.5–4 mm, apex obtuse. |
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Eremogone congesta |
Eremogone congesta var. crassula |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Dry, upper montane ridges and rocky crevices | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1800-2500 m (5900-8200 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; SK
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CA; OR |
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Discussion | Varieties 9 (9 in the flora). Eremogone congesta is highly polymorphic; it has been been divided into 11 varieties (nine recognized here), most of which are distinctive and locally distributed. M. F. Baad (1969) noted two patterns of variation of different origin within E. congesta, but he did not present a revised classification. While most specimens of the four varieties with dense inflorescences do not exhibit evident pedicels, the occasional plant does bear one or more pedicels to 1–2 mm, sometimes in secondary inflorescences. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 60. | FNA vol. 5, p. 62. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Eremogone | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Eremogone > Eremogone congesta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Arenaria congesta | Arenaria congesta var. crassula | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Nuttall) Ikonnikov: Novosti Syst. Vyssh. Rast. 10: 139. (1973) | (Maguire) R. L. Hartman & Rabeler: Sida 21: 239. (2004) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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