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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf

Holmgrens' blazingstar

Habit Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. Plants biennial, candelabra-form.
Stems

solitary, erect, straight;

branches distal or along entire stem, distal or proximal longest, antrorse, upcurved; hairy.

Leaves

blade 42–89 × 11–31.9 mm, widest intersinus distance 2.3–3.6 mm;

proximal oblanceolate to elliptic, margins pinnatisect, lobes 14–20, strongly antrorse, 4.9–14.4 mm;

distal lanceolate, base not clasping, margins pinnatisect, lobes 12–18, strongly antrorse, 4.2–12.4 mm;

abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook, complex grappling-hook, and needlelike trichomes, adaxial surface with simple grappling-hook and needlelike trichomes.

Basal leaves

persisting;

petiole present or absent;

blade linear-lanceolate, margins deeply to shallowly lobed.

Cauline leaves

petiole absent;

blade ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 17 cm, margins usually deeply lobed to dentate, rarely entire.

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 pinnate.

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, 13.5–18.8 × 5.2–6.6 mm, apex rounded, glabrous abaxially;

stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 11.1–16 × 2.7–5 mm, without anthers, second whorl with anthers;

anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth;

styles 8.4–10.6 mm.

Capsules

clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed.

cylindric, 13.1–14.6 × 5.8–6.9 mm, base tapering, 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 sinuous, papillae 26–51 per cell.

2n

= 54.

= 20.

Mentzelia veatchiana

Mentzelia holmgreniorum

Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun. Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. Dry sandy washes, roadsides, disturbed areas.
Elevation 200–2500 m. (700–8200 ft.) 1400–2300 m. (4600–7500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM
[BONAP county map]
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 holmgreniorum is known from Apache, Coconino, and Navajo counties, Arizona, and Catron County, New Mexico. It is allopatric from the species most similar to it (M. filifolia, M. laciniata, and M. lagarosa), occurring south and west of all three; it differs from all these species in having upcurved rather than straight branches, and from M. filifolia and M. laciniata in having both simple grappling-hook and needlelike trichomes (versus only needlelike trichomes) on its adaxial leaf surfaces. In addition, M. holmgreniorum differs from M. filifolia in having leaf blades with greater intersinus distances (2.3–3.6 mm versus 1–2.4 mm) and wider lobes (1.6–2.5 mm versus 0.8–1.4 mm), from M. laciniata in having pinnate bracts (versus usually entire, rarely pinnate), and from M. lagarosa in having leaf blade lobes that are strongly antrorsely oriented (versus slightly antrorsely or perpendicular to the leaf axis) and flowers with larger petals (13.5–18.8 × 5.2–6.6 mm versus 8.3–13 × 2.2–5.4 mm) and longer outermost stamens (11.1–16 mm versus 6.5–10.7 mm).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 12, p. 543. FNA vol. 12, p. 516.
Parent taxa Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Bartonia
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. torreyi, M. tricuspis, M. tridentata, M. uintahensis
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. 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. torreyi, M. tricuspis, M. tridentata, M. uintahensis, M. veatchiana
Synonyms M. albicaulis var. veatchiana
Name authority Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) J. J. Schenk & L. Hufford: Madroño 57: 252, fig. 2C. (2010)
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