Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia aspera |
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
dal-pega, rough stickleaf, tropical blazingstar, tropical stickleaf |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants annual, without caudices or tubers. |
Stems | erect to decumbent, to 30 cm. |
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Leaves | petiole 10–65 mm; blade hastate to ovate, usually basally lobed, sometimes unlobed, to 18 × 10 cm, base cuneate to truncate, margins serrate to crenate, apex acute. |
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Basal leaves | persisting; petiole present or absent; blade linear-lanceolate, margins deeply to shallowly lobed. |
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Cauline leaves | petiole absent; blade ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 17 cm, margins usually deeply lobed to dentate, rarely entire. |
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Bracts | usually green with prominent white base usually conspicuously extending outwards from midvein, rarely green, usually ovate, rarely lanceolate, 3.3–6.2 × 1.5–3.2 mm, width 1/4–7/8 length, not concealing capsule, margins usually 3–7-lobed, rarely entire. |
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Pedicels | (fruiting) 1–3 × 2 mm (often appearing absent because thick and continuous with capsule). |
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Flowers | sepals 2–5 mm; petals red to orange proximally, orange to yellow distally, 4–7(–10) mm, apex retuse; stamens 20+, 3–7 mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform, unlobed; styles (3–)3.5–6 mm. |
petals orange or yellow, 5–15 × 3–7 mm, apex cuspidate, hairy abaxially at apex; stamens 20–30, 5 mm, filaments heteromorphic, 5 outermost narrowly spatulate, inner filiform; style 5 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
subcylindric to clavate, 9–30 × 3–3.5 mm, base tapering gradually, capsule and pedicel not well-differentiated. |
Seeds | 15–35, 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 or equal to 1/2 as tall as wide at maturity. |
5–9 per capsule, pyriform to oblong, without transverse folds. |
2n | = 54. |
= 20. |
Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia aspera |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Aug–Oct. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Arroyo and canyon bottoms, grasslands, desert scrub, riparian cottonwood and willow vegetation. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. [700–8200 ft.] | 100–2000 m. [300–6600 ft.] |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
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AZ; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced in Atlantic Islands (Cape Verde Islands)]
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Discussion | Mentzelia veatchiana is the most common and widely distributed hexaploid species in sect. Trachyphytum. It exhibits considerable morphological variation and can be difficult to distinguish from M. montana in northern California. Like the larger-flowered M. pectinata, M. veatchiana has interfertile populations with petal colors ranging from orange to yellow (J. E. Zavortink 1966). When bearing orange petals, M. veatchiana is easily distinguished from other species. Reports of M. veatchiana from Utah are based on specimens treated here as M. montana. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Mentzelia aspera is uncommon in southern Arizona. It is the most widespread species of the genus and is regarded as weedy by some authors (H. J. Thompson and A. M. Powell 1981). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 528. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 516. (1753) |
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