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woolly meadowfoam

Baker's meadowfoam

Habit Plants 3–25 cm; herbage glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy. Plants 10–40 cm.
Stems

erect to ascending or decumbent.

erect or ascending.

Leaves

1–8 cm;

leaflets 5–11, blade linear to ovate-elliptic, margins entire, irregularly toothed, or lobed.

3–10 cm;

leaflets 3–9, blade elliptic to ovate, margins usually entire (rarely 2- or 3-lobed).

Flowers

urn-, cup-, or bell-shaped;

sepals accrescent or not, ovate, obovate, lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or lanceolate-ovate, 4–10 mm;

petals white, obovate, oblong, or obovate-cuneate, 4.5–10 mm, 1.6–1.8 times as long as wide, 0.5–1.1 times longer than sepals, apex retuse, obtuse, erose, truncate, or emarginate;

filaments 2–7 mm;

anthers (yellow) 0.4–1.5 mm;

style 1.5–4 mm.

funnel- to bell-shaped;

sepals lanceolate, 5–7 mm;

petals pale yellow with white tips, cuneate, 7–9 mm, apex truncate, erose;

filaments 2.5–4 mm;

anthers cream, 0.5 mm;

style 2–3 mm.

Nutlets

dark brown or gray, 3–4.5 mm, tuberculate, tubercles straw-colored, platelike, conic, or awl-shaped.

dark brown, 3–3.5 mm, tuberculate, tubercles light brown or pinkish, rounded.

2n

= 10.

Limnanthes floccosa

Limnanthes bakeri

Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Vernal pools, marshy margins of pools
Elevation 100-900 m (300-3000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora).

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

Of conservation concern.

Limnanthes bakeri is known from the Inner Coast Ranges of Mendocino County. It is easily recognized by having relatively few leaves with broad, mostly entire leaflets. The stamens and styles are about equal in length and are pressed together by a funnel-shaped corolla, facilitating self-pollination (R. V. Kesseli and S. K. Jain 1984b). Combined ITS, trnL, and morphological analyses placed L. bakeri in a basal position with respect to the Limnanthes (as sect. Reflexae) clade, and most closely allied with L. vinculans (M. S. Plotkin 1998). W. H. Parker and B. A. Bohm (1979) suggested that Floerkea proserpinacoides and L. bakeri separated from the family line long before the separation of other species.

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

Key
1. Flowers bell- or urn-shaped (petals without marginal hairs basally); anthers usually dehiscing introrsely
→ 2
1. Flowers cup-shaped (petals with marginal hairs basally); anthers usually dehiscing extrorsely (introrsely in subsp. pumila)
→ 3
2. Sepals abaxially and adaxially densely villous; nutlet tubercles awl-shaped.
subsp. floccosa
2. Sepals abaxially and adaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy; nutlet tubercles platelike.
subsp. bellingeriana
3. Herbage densely hairy; sepals abaxially densely hairy.
subsp. californica
3. Herbage glabrous or sparsely hairy; sepals abaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy
→ 4
4. Sepals not accrescent, 7.5-8 mm, adaxially glabrous.
subsp. pumila
4. Sepals accrescent, 8.5-9 mm, adaxially densely hairy.
subsp. grandiflora
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 182. FNA vol. 7, p. 175.
Parent taxa Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Inflexae Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Limnanthes
Sibling taxa
L. alba, L. bakeri, L. douglasii, L. macounii, L. montana, L. vinculans
L. alba, L. douglasii, L. floccosa, L. macounii, L. montana, L. vinculans
Subordinate taxa
L. floccosa subsp. bellingeriana, L. floccosa subsp. californica, L. floccosa subsp. floccosa, L. floccosa subsp. grandiflora, L. floccosa subsp. pumila
Name authority Howell: Fl. N.W. Amer., 108. (1897) J. T. Howell: Leafl. W. Bot. 3: 206. (1943)
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