Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia librina |
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
Book Cliffs stickleaf |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants perennial, bushlike, with subterranean caudices or rhizomes. |
Stems | multiple, erect, zigzag; branches distal or along entire stem, distal longest or all ± equal, antrorse, straight to upcurved; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 14–26.3 × 5.1–10.8 mm, widest intersinus distance 2.3–5.2 mm; proximal oblanceolate to elliptic, margins usually 3-fid, rarely entire or pinnate, teeth or lobes usually 2, rarely 0 or 4, perpendicular to leaf axis, 0.8–2.7 mm; distal elliptic, base not clasping, margins 3-fid to occasionally pinnate, teeth or lobes usually 2, occasionally 4, perpendicular to leaf axis, 1.5–3.5 mm; abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook and complex grappling-hook 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 usually entire, rarely 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, 8.3–13.6 × 2.6–4.8(–6.2) mm, apex acute, glabrous abaxially; stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments broadly spatulate, strongly clawed, 6–8(–9.1) × 2.3–4.4 mm, with anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 5–7.9 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cup-shaped, 4–7.3 × 3.3–5.8 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 4–5 per cell. |
2n | = 54. |
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Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia librina |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Jun–Sep. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Barren gray soils, steep shale slopes. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. [700–8200 ft.] | 1700–2100 m. [5600–6900 ft.] |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
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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 librina in narrowly distributed along the border between Carbon and Emery counties. (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. librina |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | (K. H. Thorne & F. J. Smith) J. J. Schenk & L. Hufford: Novon 19: 119. (2009) |
Web links |