Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia floridana |
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
Florida stickleaf, poorman's patch, poorman's patches |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants perennial, with caudices. |
Stems | erect, becoming decumbent, to 60 cm. |
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Leaves | petiole to 25 mm; blade usually hastate or ovate, distal sometimes elliptic, basally lobed or unlobed, to 8.4 × 5.5 cm, base usually truncate, sometimes obtusely cuneate, margins usually serrate or dentate to crenate, sometimes entire, 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) 0.6–4 × less than 1 mm. |
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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 creamy yellow to orange, 6.5–13 × 3.5–7 mm, apex cuspidate, hairy on apex; stamens 20–35, 6–11 mm, filaments heteromorphic, 5 outermost narrowly spatulate, inner filiform; style 8–10 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
usually lingulate to funnelform, rarely ovoid, 10–18 × 4–5.8 mm, base rounded or cuneate, capsule and pedicel 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. |
(4–)6–8 per capsule, pyriform, without transverse folds. |
2n | = 54. |
= 20. |
Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia floridana |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Sep–May. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Beaches, dunes, sand flats along ocean and rivers, coastal hammocks, disturbed areas, roadsides, shell mounds. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. (700–8200 ft.) | 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
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FL; West Indies (Bahamas) |
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 floridana, which is widespread in peninsular Florida, belongs to a clade restricted to the Gulf coastal and Caribbean region; it is most closely related to M. gracilis Urban & Gilg of Mexico and to M. lindheimeri of Texas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 528. |
Parent taxa | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Mentzelia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 533. (1840) |
Web links |