Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia flumensevera |
|
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
Sevier Canyon stickleaf |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants perennial, bushlike, with subterranean caudices or rhizomes. |
Stems | multiple, erect or decumbent, zigzag; branches along entire stem, all ± equal, antrorse, upcurved; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 11.2–22 × 5.2–10.2 mm, widest intersinus distance 1.2–2.4 mm; proximal oblanceolate to elliptic, margins pinnate, lobes 4–6, perpendicular to leaf axis, 2.3–4.1 mm; distal elliptic, base not clasping, margins pinnate, lobes 2–4, perpendicular to leaf axis, 1.4–3 mm; abaxial surface with complex grappling-hook and needlelike trichomes, adaxial surface with complex 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, 10–11.2 × 2.9–3.8 mm, apex rounded, glabrous abaxially; stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 7.3–8.4 × 1.3–1.9 mm, with anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 5.8–8.7 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cup-shaped, 5.6–7.1 × 4–6 mm, base 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 3–7 per cell. |
2n | = 54. |
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Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia flumensevera |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Jul–Aug(–Oct). |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Sparsely vegetated, steep talus slopes composed of gravel and clay, white soils. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. [700–8200 ft.] | 1700–1900 m. [5600–6200 ft.] |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
|
UT |
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 flumensevera is narrowly distributed across the Piute and Sevier county line. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 511. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | M. multicaulis var. flumensevera |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | (N. H. Holmgren & P. K. Holmgren) J. J. Schenk & L. Hufford: Novon 19: 118. (2009) |
Web links |