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Ash Creek ivesia, Ash Creek mousetail

Ash Meadows ivesia, King's ivesia, King's mousetail

Habit Plants grayish, ± matted. Plants usually grayish green to silvery, often glaucous; glands sparse.
Stems

± prostrate, 0.4–1.5(–2) dm.

usually prostrate-decumbent to ascending, sometimes ± erect, 1–4(–5.5) dm.

Basal leaves

tightly cylindric, (1.5–)2–5(–7) cm; sheathing base densely hairy abaxially;

petiole 0.5–4 cm;

lateral leaflets (5–)8–15 per side, overlapping at least distally, ± flabellate, 0.5–2 mm, incised to base or nearly so into (0–)3–8(–15) elliptic to narrowly obovate lobes, apex not or obscurely setose, surfaces densely hirsute, cryptically glandular;

terminal leaflets indistinct.

5–20 cm; sheathing base glabrous or densely strigose abaxially;

stipules absent or linear to lanceolate, 1–4 mm;

petiole 0.2–1.2 cm, hairs absent or sparse to dense, appressed or ascending, 0.5–2 mm;

leaflets 15–60 per side, loosely to tightly overlapping, (1.8–)2–6(–8) mm, lobes (0–)2–4, narrowly oblanceolate to obovate, hairs absent or sparse to dense, ± appressed, 0.2–0.5(–1) mm.

Cauline leaves

(0–)1;

blade reduced.

4–15.

Inflorescences

20–200-flowered, congested, (1–)1.5–6(–10) cm diam.

5–100-flowered, 1–12 cm diam., flowers arranged individually and/or in few to several loose glomerules of 2–10 flowers.

Pedicels

1.5–6 mm.

(1–)2–20(–25) mm.

Flowers

4–6 mm diam.;

epicalyx bractlets 5, lanceolate to elliptic, 0.6–1.5(–2) mm;

hypanthium shallowly cupulate, 1 × 2–3 mm;

sepals (1–)1.5–2.5(–3) mm, acute;

petals white to pale yellowish, linear, 1 mm;

stamens 5, filaments 0.3–1 mm, anthers yellow with maroon margins, ovate, 0.3–0.5 mm;

carpels 1–2(–3), styles 0.7–1.8 mm.

8–12 mm diam.;

epicalyx bractlets lanceolate to elliptic or ovate, (0.8–)1–2(–2.5) mm;

hypanthium shallowly cupulate, 0.5–2 × 1.5–4 mm, ± 1/2 as deep as wide;

sepals sometimes purple-suffused, 2–4(–5) mm, narrowly acute to acuminate;

petals white, spatulate or obovate to orbiculate, (2.8–)3–5(–6) mm;

stamens 20, filaments filiform, 1.5–2.5 mm, anthers white to cream, 0.3–0.6 mm;

carpels 2–9, styles 2–2.5(–3) mm.

Achenes

brown, 0.8–1.5 mm, smooth, prominently carunculate.

light brown, 1.8–2.5 mm.

Ivesia paniculata

Ivesia kingii

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Dry shallow volcanic ash and cinders atop volcanic bedrock, open sagebrush communities, adjacent conifer woodlands
Elevation 1500–1800 m (4900–5900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; NV; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Ivesia paniculata is known only from the Ash Valley area of Lassen County. The distinctions between I. paniculata and I. rhypara are perhaps on the same scale as variation among disjunct population clusters of I. rhypara, but no taxonomic adjustments are proposed at this time.

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

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Significant variation in habit, indument, leaflet lobing, and compactness of inflorescence can be found among and within populations of Ivesia kingii; no taxonomic structure has yet been discerned beyond the varieties recognized here. The variation within widespread var. kingii suggests that var. eremica resulted from a southward, late Pleistocene migration of a hairy phase of I. kingii with compact leaflets out of the Great Basin onto the northern edge of the Mojave Desert (J. L. Reveal 1980). Although densely hairy plants are encountered widely in the Great Basin, only in the Ash Meadows area of southernmost Nye County, the home of var. eremica, is there a consistently hairy phase. The leaflets of var. eremica are so tightly compacted that individual leaflets cannot be distinguished; in var. kingii, leaflets are individually distinct, though plants from Mineral County sometimes approach var. eremica in this regard. In the field, shoots of var. kingii arise directly from a taproot with the spreading branches flowing outwardly from a single point of attachment. In var. eremica, older, mature plants form compact mats with short, spreading caudex branches.

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

Key
1. Leaflets individually ± distinguishable, loosely to tightly overlapping; caudices simple or few branched; Great Basin, ec California, Nevada, w Utah.
var. kingii
1. Leaflets mostly not individually distinguishable, tightly overlapping; caudices often much branched; n Mojave Desert, Nevada.
var. eremica
Source FNA vol. 9, p. 229. FNA vol. 9, p. 238.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Ivesia > sect. Setosae Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Ivesia > sect. Unguiculatae
Sibling taxa
I. aperta, I. argyrocoma, I. arizonica, I. baileyi, I. callida, I. campestris, I. cryptocaulis, I. gordonii, I. jaegeri, I. kingii, I. longibracteata, I. lycopodioides, I. muirii, I. multifoliolata, I. patellifera, I. pickeringii, I. pityocharis, I. pygmaea, I. rhypara, I. sabulosa, I. santolinoides, I. saxosa, I. sericoleuca, I. setosa, I. shockleyi, I. tweedyi, I. unguiculata, I. utahensis, I. webberi
I. aperta, I. argyrocoma, I. arizonica, I. baileyi, I. callida, I. campestris, I. cryptocaulis, I. gordonii, I. jaegeri, I. longibracteata, I. lycopodioides, I. muirii, I. multifoliolata, I. paniculata, I. patellifera, I. pickeringii, I. pityocharis, I. pygmaea, I. rhypara, I. sabulosa, I. santolinoides, I. saxosa, I. sericoleuca, I. setosa, I. shockleyi, I. tweedyi, I. unguiculata, I. utahensis, I. webberi
Subordinate taxa
I. kingii var. eremica, I. kingii var. kingii
Synonyms Potentilla kingii
Name authority T. W. Nelson & J. P. Nelson: Brittonia 33: 165, fig. 1. (1981) S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 91, 448. (1871)
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