Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia candelariae |
|
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
candelaria blazingstar |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 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 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. |
margins entire. |
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 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, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° 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 | 15–35, 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. |
coat anticlinal cell walls straight, papillae 6–16 per cell. |
2n | = 54. |
= 22. |
Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia candelariae |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Sparsely vegetated washes, steep slopes, hilltops, gravelly, clayey, and sandy soils composed of volcanic ash. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. [700–8200 ft.] | 1100–2000 m. [3600–6600 ft.] |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
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NV |
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 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. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 515. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | H. J. Thompson & Prigge: Phytologia 55: 281, figs. 1, 3. (1984) |
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