Mentzelia nitens |
Mentzelia conspicua |
|
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shining blazing star, Venus blazingstar |
remarkable blazingstar, rio chama 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, straight; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 69–195 × 11.6–55.7 mm, widest intersinus distance 1.3–2.5(–3.5) mm; proximal oblanceolate or elliptic, margins pinnatisect, lobes 16–26, slightly antrorse or perpendicular to leaf axis, 5.1–15.1 mm; distal elliptic, base not clasping, margins pinnatisect, lobes 10–20, slightly antrorse or perpendicular to leaf axis, 6.2–12.3(–22.5) mm; abaxial surface with needlelike and occasionally simple grappling-hook trichomes, adaxial surface with 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, 30–42.2 × 5.7–10.8 mm, apex acute, glabrous abaxially; stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 27–37.4 × 4.8–9.7 mm, without anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 24–32.4 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 13–26 × 2–3.5 mm, axillary curved to 180° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cylindric, 15–26 × 5–7.2 mm, base tapering to 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 sinuous, papillae 8–12 per cell. |
2n | = 18. |
= 20. |
Mentzelia nitens |
Mentzelia conspicua |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Jun–Sep. |
Habitat | Sandy washes, rocky slopes, desert scrub. | Slopes, pinyon pine and juniper woodlands, grasslands, sparsely vegetated soils composed of red and brown loam. |
Elevation | 400–2000 m. (1300–6600 ft.) | 1800–2400 m. (5900–7900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV
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NM |
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 conspicua is known from Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and Torrance 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) | Todsen: Sida 18: 819, fig. 1. (1999) |
Web links |