Mentzelia nitens |
Mentzelia candelariae |
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shining blazing star, Venus blazingstar |
candelaria blazingstar |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, 5–20(–35) cm. | Plants biennial, candelabra-form. |
Stems | solitary, erect, straight; branches distal, distal longest, antrorse, upcurved; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 26–74 × 6–19.2 mm, widest intersinus distance 4.5–11.4 mm; proximal obovate, oblanceolate, or lanceolate, margins serrate, teeth 8–14, slightly antrorse, 0.6–4.5 mm; distal elliptic to lanceolate, base not clasping, margins serrate, teeth 6–12, slightly antrorse, 1.3–4.1 mm; abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook, complex grappling-hook, and occasionally needlelike 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 | green, lanceolate, 4.5–8.3 × 1.2–3.6 mm, width 1/5–1/2 length, not concealing capsule, margins entire. |
margins entire. |
Flowers | 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. |
petals golden yellow, (6.1–)7.3–10 × 1.6–3 mm, apex acute, glabrous abaxially; stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost not petaloid, filaments linear to narrowly spatulate, not clawed, 4–8 × 0.7–1.5 mm, with anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 3.7–7 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 13–26 × 2–3.5 mm, axillary curved to 180° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cup-shaped to cylindric, 10.4–16 × 6.6–9 mm, base tapering or rounded, not longitudinally ridged. |
Seeds | 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. |
coat anticlinal cell walls straight, papillae 6–16 per cell. |
2n | = 18. |
= 22. |
Mentzelia nitens |
Mentzelia candelariae |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Sandy washes, rocky slopes, desert scrub. | Sparsely vegetated washes, steep slopes, hilltops, gravelly, clayey, and sandy soils composed of volcanic ash. |
Elevation | 400–2000 m. (1300–6600 ft.) | 1100–2000 m. (3600–6600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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NV |
Discussion | 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.) |
Mentzelia candelariae is known from Churchill, Esmeralda, Mineral, Nye, and Pershing counties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 540. | FNA vol. 12, p. 515. |
Parent taxa | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Bartonia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Greene: Fl. Francisc., 234. (1891) | H. J. Thompson & Prigge: Phytologia 55: 281, figs. 1, 3. (1984) |
Web links |