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pine barren goldenheather, pine-barren false heather

rock-rose family

Habit Plants to 30 cm. Herbs, annual or perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs, usually hairy.
Leaves

weakly spreading;

blade acerose to subulate, 2–7 mm, surfaces sericeous, glabrescent.

alternate, opposite, or whorled, usually estipulate, sometimes stipulate (Tuberaria), stipules caducous, petiolate or sessile;

blade 1- or 3- [5-]veined from base, not lobed, sometimes scalelike, margins entire [crenate, serrate], sometimes revolute and/or undulate.

Inflorescences

usually corymbose, cymose, paniculate, racemose, thyrsiform, or umbellate, seldom solitary flowers.

Pedicels

mostly 4–10(–16) mm.

present or absent;

bracts present or absent.

Flowers

sepal apices acute to acuminate;

petals usually yellow, sometimes white;

ovaries proximally glabrous or glabrescent, distally hairy.

chasmogamous or cleistogamous;

sepals persistent or tardily falling, 3–5;

petals usually caducous [marcescent], usually 3–5, sometimes 0 in cleistogamous flowers, imbricate, distinct, crumpled in bud, green, dark red, pink, purple, red, white, or yellow;

stamens (3–)5–150+;

filaments distinct or basally connate;

ovaries superior, 2-, 3-, 5-, or 6–12-carpellate;

placentation parietal;

styles 0 or 1;

stigmas 1 or 3;

ovules orthotropous [anatropous], bitegmic, crassinucellate.

Fruits

capsular, dehiscence loculicidal [septifragal].

Seeds

(1–)3–800+ per capsule, often with thin outer integument.

2n

= 20.

Hudsonia ericoides

Cistaceae

Phenology Flowering May–Jun(–Jul).
Habitat Open, sandy sites, beaches, pine and pine-oak woods, granite outcrops
Elevation 0–300 m (0–1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DE; MA; MD; ME; NH; NJ; NY; RI; SC; VA; VT; NF; NS; PE; QC; SPM
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; sw Europe; n Africa; mostly of temperate areas
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Genera 8, species 170–180 (5 genera, 40 species in the flora).

Affinities of Cistaceae are evidently with Malvales. Members of Cistaceae are widely cultivated, especially cultivars of hybrids and species of Cistus, Crocanthemum, Halimium (Dunal) Spach, and Helianthemum Miller.

Hairs on Cistaceae plants may be simple or stellate (comprising tight clusters or tufts of simple, unbranched hairs) and glandular or eglandular.

Two species of Cistaceae have been collected in the flora area as waifs. Helianthemum nummularium Miller is known from Colorado, Missouri, and Oregon; it differs from species of Crocanthemum by the combination of glabrous abaxial surfaces of sepals and stellate-tomentose ovaries. Helianthemum salicifolium (Linnaeus) Miller is known from New York; it differs from species of Crocanthemum by its opposite leaves and erect, curved pedicels.

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

Key
1. Capsules 5–12-valved.
Cistus
1. Capsules 2–3-valved
→ 2
2. Petals 3, usually red, sometimes green.
Lechea
2. Petals usually 5, sometimes 0 in cleistogamous flowers, usually yellow, sometimes white
→ 3
3. Herbs, annual; leaves mostly opposite (basal sometimes in rosettes; distal sometimes alternate).
Tuberaria
3. Herbs, perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs; leaves alternate (basal sometimes in rosettes)
→ 4
4. Shrubs; leaf blades scalelike or acerose to subulate; inflorescences solitary flowers.
Hudsonia
4. Herbs or subshrubs; leaf blades not scalelike or acerose to subulate; inflorescences usually corymbs, cymes, panicles, racemes, thyrses, or umbels, seldom solitary flowers.
Crocanthemum
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 399. FNA vol. 6, p. 386. Author: John L. Strother.
Parent taxa Cistaceae > Hudsonia
Sibling taxa
H. montana, H. tomentosa
Subordinate taxa
Cistus, Crocanthemum, Hudsonia, Lechea, Tuberaria
Synonyms H. ericoides subsp. andersonii, H. ericoides subsp. intermedia, H. tomentosa var. intermedia
Name authority Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 12, 2: 327. (1767): Mant. Pl. 1: 74. (1767) Jussieu
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