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Ferris' sandwort

Habit Plants tufted, green, not glaucous, with woody base.
Stems

erect, (10–)20–40(–100) cm, glabrous to stipitate-glandular.

Leaves

basal leaves sparse or absent;

cauline leaves usually in 5–7 pairs, not significantly reduced;

basal blades ascending, needlelike or narrowly linear, 2–6(–7) cm × 0.5–1 mm, ± rigid, herbaceous to subsucculent, apex blunt to spinose, usually glabrous, not glaucous.

Inflorescences

10–30(–80)-flowered, diffuse cymes;

branches spreading.

Pedicels

15–55 mm, glabrous or stipitate-glandular.

Flowers

sepals 1–3-veined, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, 3–4.3 mm, to 5.5 mm in fruit, margins narrow to broad, apex acute to acuminate, glabrous to sparsely stipitate-glandular;

petals white or yellowish, oblanceolate to spatulate, 6–9 mm, 1–1.5 times as long as sepals, apex entire or erose;

nectaries as lateral and abaxial rounding of base of filaments opposite sepals, 0.3–0.4 mm.

Capsules

6–7 mm, glabrous.

Seeds

reddish brown to blackish, suborbicular to pyriform or ovoid, 1.3–3.2 mm, tuberculate;

tubercles low, rounded to conic.

Eremogone ferrisiae

Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Pine and oak woodlands, granitic alluvium on foothills and mountain slopes
Elevation 1400-2900 m (4600-9500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

We now believe that Eremogone macradenia (in the sense of R. L. Hartman 1993) should be split into two species, with E. macradenia var. ferrisiae (Abrams) R. L. Hartman & Rabeler being elevated to species rank (Hartman and R. K. Rabeler 2004), as here. This became particularly obvious when comparing nectary morphology of E. macradenia (rectangular, two-lobed or truncate, 0.7–1.5 mm or narrowly longitudinally rectangular, truncate, densely minutely pubescent with erect to spreading hairs, 0.7–0.8 mm) with that of E. ferrisiae (rounded, 0.3–0.4 mm). Furthermore, the nectary types correlate well with sepal size and inflorescence type, as indicated in the key. This disposition agrees with the conclusions of M. F. Baad (1969).

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 65.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Eremogone
Sibling taxa
E. aberrans, E. aculeata, E. capillaris, E. congesta, E. eastwoodiae, E. fendleri, E. franklinii, E. hookeri, E. kingii, E. macradenia, E. pumicola, E. stenomeres, E. ursina
Synonyms Arenaria macradenia subsp. ferrisiae, E. macradenia var. ferrisiae
Name authority (Abrams) R. L. Hartman & Rabeler: Sida 21: 754. (2004)
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