Mentzelia humilis |
Mentzelia nitens |
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gypsum blazingstar |
shining blazing star, Venus blazingstar |
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Habit | Plants perennial, bushlike, with ground-level caudices. | Plants candelabra-form, 5–20(–35) cm. | ||||
Stems | solitary or multiple, erect, straight; branches distal or along entire stem, distal longest or all ± equal, antrorse; straight to upcurved; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 25–95 × 5.5–28(–36.2) mm, widest intersinus distance 0.8–9.1 mm; proximal spatulate to oblanceolate or elliptic, margins pinnate to pinnatisect, lobes 4–16(–20), slightly antrorse or perpendicular to leaf axis, 2.3–11.8(–16.4) mm; distal elliptic, lanceolate, spatulate, or linear, base not clasping, margins entire or dentate to pinnatisect, teeth or lobes (0–)4–16, slightly antrorse or perpendicular to leaf axis, 2.3–13.8(–16.9) mm; abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook, needlelike, and sometimes complex grappling-hook trichomes, adaxial surface with simple grappling-hook and needlelike trichomes. |
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Basal leaves | persisting; petiole present or absent; blade lanceolate to linear, margins usually deeply to shallowly lobed, rarely entire. |
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Cauline leaves | petiole absent; blade ovate-lanceolate to linear, to 15 cm, margins deeply to shallowly lobed or entire. |
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Bracts | margins usually entire, rarely pinnate. |
green, lanceolate, 4.5–8.3 × 1.2–3.6 mm, width 1/5–1/2 length, not concealing capsule, margins entire. |
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Flowers | petals white, 10.3–13(–28.6) × 1.4–4 mm, apex acute, glabrous abaxially; stamens white, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments linear to narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 8.8–19(–22.3) × 0.7–3.3 mm, without anthers, second whorl without anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis papillate; styles 6.5–11.3 mm. |
sepals 3–8 mm; petals yellow to orange proximally, yellow distally, (7–)8–18 mm, apex rounded or acute apex; stamens 20+, 3–8 mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform, unlobed; styles 4–8 mm. |
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Capsules | cup-shaped, 5.3–10.2 × (4.2–)5.2–8.6 mm, base rounded, not longitudinally ridged. |
clavate, 13–26 × 2–3.5 mm, axillary curved to 180° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
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Seeds | coat anticlinal cell walls wavy, papillae 6–12 per cell. |
15–40, in 2+ rows distal to mid fruit, tan, usually dark-mottled, usually irregularly polygonal, occasionally triangular prisms proximal to mid fruit, surface colliculate under 10x magnification; recurved flap over hilum usually present; seed coat cell outer periclinal wall domed, domes on seed edges less than 1/2 as tall as wide at maturity. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Mentzelia humilis |
Mentzelia nitens |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy washes, rocky slopes, desert scrub. | |||||
Elevation | 400–2000 m. (1300–6600 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
NM; TX
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CA; NV
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). The basionym of Mentzelia humilis is often cited as M. multiflora var. humilis A. Gray (1852). However, in that publication Gray indicated accepted names in Roman capitals (see ipni.org), whereas the varietal name is in lower case, indicating that he was using it as a descriptive term rather than a scientific name. Valid publication of the basionym thus must be attributed to Urban and Gilg. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Mentzelia nitens is similar to both M. eremophila and M. jonesii but exhibits little distributional overlap with either species. See 71. M. eremophila and 73. M. jonesii for discussion of similarities. Reports of M. nitens from Arizona are based on specimens treated here as M. jonesii. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 503. | FNA vol. 12, p. 540. | ||||
Parent taxa | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Bartonia | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | M. pumila var. humilis, Nuttallia humilis, Touterea humilis | |||||
Name authority | (Urban & Gilg) J. Darlington: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 21: 155. (1934) | Greene: Fl. Francisc., 234. (1891) | ||||
Web links |