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spinecape, yellow spinecape

golden goodmania, yellow spinecap, yellow spinecape

Habit Herbs, annual; taproot slender. Plants (0.3–)0.5–1.5 × (0.1–)0.3–1.5 dm.
Stems

arising directly from the root, spreading to decumbent or prostrate, solid, not fistulose or disarticulating into ringlike segments, pubescent or glabrous.

Leaves

usually persistent through anthesis, basal and cauline, opposite;

petiole present;

blade broadly elliptic or round to reniform, becoming linear, margins entire, awn-tipped at proximal nodes.

petiole (3–)10–20 mm;

proximal blades 2–5(–6) × 2–5(–7) mm, acerose, distal blades 3–5 × 0.5–1.5 mm, awn-tipped.

Inflorescences

terminal, cymose;

branches dichotomous, not brittle or disarticulating into segments, round, usually glabrous;

bracts 2, distinct, somewhat leaflike and seemingly succulent, mucronate, pubescent to glabrate.

Peduncles

absent.

Flowers

(6–)9–15 per involucral cluster at any single time during anthesis;

perianth yellow, broadly campanulate when open, narrowly urceolate when closed, woolly-tomentose abaxially;

tepals 6, connate proximally, monomorphic, entire apically;

stamens 9;

filaments basally adnate, glabrous;

anthers yellow, ovate.

0.8–1 mm.

Achenes

included, light brown, not winged, 3-gonous, glabrous.

1–1.2 mm.

Seeds

embryo curved.

Involucral

bracts in 1 whorl of 5, distinct, narrowly lanceolate, awn-tipped.

bracts 2–5 mm;

awns 1–3 mm.

Goodmania

Goodmania luteola

Phenology Flowering Apr–Aug.
Habitat Dry lake-beds, flats and sinks, and meadows in mixed grassland, saltbush, creosote bush, and sagebrush communities
Elevation 70-2200 m (200-7200 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
w United States
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; NV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 1.

Goodmania is allied to Eriogonum subg. Ganysma but its point of origin is obscure. The most logical point to suggest within subg. Ganysma is somewhere around the E. inflatum complex. The bright green color of the flowering stems and inflorescence branches, the pubescent yellow flowers, and the near-glabrous condition of the plant body are somewhat akin to those found in Stenogonum. Each of these segregate genera is confined to arid regions in the American West, all appear to have rather recent origins, and each seems to be exhibiting a type of variation different from the norm seen among the annual wild buckwheats.

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

Goodmania luteola occurs in the southern San Joaquin Valley and on the northwestern edge of the Mojave Desert in California northward to Mono County. It also occurs in Alkali Valley, Mineral County, Nevada. It rapidly is becoming rare and frequently locally extirpated.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 433. Author: James L. Reveal. FNA vol. 5, p. 433.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Goodmania
Subordinate taxa
G. luteola
Synonyms Oxytheca luteola, Eriogonum spinescens
Name authority Reveal & Ertter: Brittonia 28: 427, fig. 1. (1977) (Parry) Reveal & Ertter: Brittonia 28: 427. (1977)
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