Flora of North America species comparison

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Mentzelia torreyi

Torrey's blazing star
Habit Plants with ground-level or subterranean caudices.
Stems

5–25 cm.
Leaves

petiole absent;

blade ovate or obovate, to 45 × 35 mm, intersinus distance 2–4 mm.
Pedicels

0(–1.5) mm.
Flowers

petals yellow to orange, narrowly spatulate to obovate, 4.5–17 × 1.2–5 mm, apex rounded;

stamens 25–45, 7–21 mm;

styles 7–18 mm.
Capsules

3–7 × 3–4.5 mm.
Seeds

3–9 per capsule, edges prominently to inconspicuously ridged.
2n

= 28.

Mentzelia torreyi
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; NV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in flora).

In the phylogenetic study by L. Hufford et al. (2003), Mentzelia torreyi was recovered as the sister to the rest of the genus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Petals 8–17 mm, yellow; longest stamens to 1 mm longer than petals.
var. torreyi
1. Petals 4.5–8 mm, orangish yellow, orange, or burnt orange; longest stamens usually much more than 1 mm longer than petals.
var. acerosa
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 530.
Parent taxa Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Micromentzelia
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. jonesii, 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. tricuspis, M. tridentata, M. uintahensis, M. veatchiana
Subordinate taxa
M. torreyi var. acerosa, M. torreyi var. torreyi
Name authority A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 10: 72. (1874)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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