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Jones stickleaf, Jones' blazing star

Habit Plants candelabra-form, 20–40(–50) cm.
Basal leaves

persisting;

petiole present or absent;

blade linear-lanceolate to linear, margins deeply lobed to dentate.

Cauline leaves

petiole absent;

blade ovate-lanceolate to linear, to 15 cm, margins deeply to shallowly lobed or entire.

Bracts

green, ovate to lanceolate, 3.7–5.9 × 0.8–3.9 mm, width 1/8–2/3 length, not concealing capsule, margins entire.

Flowers

sepals (2–)4–8(–10) mm;

petals yellow to orange proximally, yellow distally, (6–)8–22 mm, apex acute to rounded;

stamens 20+, 3–10 mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform, unlobed;

styles 4–10 mm.

Capsules

clavate, 15–38 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 180° or S-shaped at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed.

Seeds

15–30, in 2+ rows distal to mid fruit, tan, dark-mottled, usually irregularly polygonal, occasionally triangular prisms proximal to mid fruit, surface tuberculate under 10x magnification; recurved flap over hilum absent;

seed coat cell outer periclinal wall domed, domes on seed edges more than 1/2 as tall as wide at maturity.

2n

= 36, 54.

Mentzelia jonesii

Phenology Flowering Mar–May.
Habitat Sandy to rocky washes, fans, or flats, creosote-bush scrub, Joshua-tree or saguaro woodlands.
Elevation 200–1500 m. (700–4900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Mentzelia jonesii is widespread throughout southeastern California and western and southern Arizona. However, tetraploid populations have been found only in California and far northwestern Arizona. Hexaploids in California have previously been called M. californica. The ranges of M. jonesii and the diploid, M. nitens, overlap in southern Inyo County, California, and these species are difficult to distinguish morphologically without mature seeds; sepal and petal lengths, which have sometimes been used to distinguish them, overlap completely.

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

Source FNA vol. 12, p. 537.
Parent taxa Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum
Sibling taxa
M. affinis, M. albescens, M. albicaulis, M. argillicola, M. argillosa, M. aspera, M. asperula, M. candelariae, M. canyonensis, M. chrysantha, M. collomiae, M. congesta, M. conspicua, M. crocea, M. cronquistii, M. decapetala, M. densa, M. desertorum, M. dispersa, M. eremophila, M. filifolia, M. floridana, M. flumensevera, M. goodrichii, M. gracilenta, M. hirsutissima, M. holmgreniorum, M. hualapaiensis, M. humilis, M. integra, M. involucrata, M. inyoensis, M. isolata, M. laciniata, M. laevicaulis, M. lagarosa, M. leucophylla, M. librina, M. lindheimeri, M. lindleyi, M. longiloba, M. marginata, M. memorabilis, M. mexicana, M. micrantha, M. mollis, M. monoensis, M. montana, M. multicaulis, M. multiflora, M. nitens, M. nuda, M. obscura, M. oligosperma, M. oreophila, M. pachyrhiza, M. packardiae, M. paradoxensis, M. pectinata, M. perennis, M. polita, M. procera, M. pterosperma, M. puberula, M. pumila, M. ravenii, M. reflexa, M. reverchonii, M. rhizomata, M. rusbyi, M. saxicola, M. shultziorum, M. sivinskii, M. speciosa, M. springeri, M. strictissima, M. thompsonii, M. tiehmii, M. todiltoensis, M. torreyi, M. tricuspis, M. tridentata, M. uintahensis, M. veatchiana
Synonyms M. albicaulis var. jonesii, M. californica, M. nitens var. jonesii
Name authority (Urban & Gilg) H. J. Thompson & J. E. Roberts: Phytologia 21: 282. (1971)
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