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lastarriaea, spineflower

Habit Herbs, annual; taproot slender.
Stems

arising directly from the root, prostrate to ascending, solid, not fistulose or disarticulating into ringlike segments, thinly pubescent.

Leaves

quickly deciduous, basal, rosulate;

petiole present;

blade linear, margins entire, hirsute.

Inflorescences

terminal, cymose, often uniparous due to suppression of secondaries;

branches dichotomous, brittle and disarticulating into segments, round, thinly pubescent;

bracts 2, opposite, connate proximally, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, mucronate or awned, thinly pubescent.

Peduncles

absent.

Flowers

1 per involucral cluster;

perianth light green to greenish white, cylindric, thinly pubescent abaxially;

tepals 5, connate 1/2–3/4 their length, slightly dimorphic, coriaceous, acute and awn-tipped apically;

stamens 3;

filaments basally adnate, glabrous;

anthers cream to white, oval.

Achenes

mostly included, brownish, not winged, lenticular to slightly 3-gonous, glabrous.

Seeds

embryo straight.

Involucral

bracts obvious, in 1 whorl of 3, linear to broadly lanceolate, awn-tipped.

x

= 20.

Lastarriaea

Distribution
from USDA
w North America (including Mexico); s South America
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 3 (1 in the flora).

The awn-tipped, coriaceous tepals easily distinguish Lastarriaea from other genera of the Eriogonoideae. The mostly prostrate habit with brittle stems and inflorescence branches is seen elsewhere in Chorizanthe, most notably C. brevicornu and in the Baja California, Mexico, endemic C. interposita (the only species of sect. Clastoscapa), and because of these features early authors assigned the North and South American species of Lastarriaea to Chorizanthe. The names L. chilensis J. Rémy and C. lastarriaea Parry have been misapplied to the California species.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 476. Author: James L. Reveal.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae
Subordinate taxa
L. coriacea
Name authority J. Rémy: in C. Gay, Fl. Chil. 5: 289. 1851 or (1852)
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