Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia lindheimeri
Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf
Lindheimer's blazingstar, Lindheimer's stickleaf, Texas stickleaf
erect to decumbent or clambering, to 50 cm.
petiole to 35 mm;
blade usually hastate to ovate, sometimes smallest distal elliptic, basally lobed or unlobed, to 12 × 7.5 cm, base truncate to obtusely cuneate, margins serrate, dentate, or crenulate, apex acute.
persisting;
petiole present or absent;
blade linear-lanceolate, margins deeply to shallowly lobed.
petiole absent;
blade ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 17 cm, margins usually deeply lobed to dentate, rarely entire.
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.
(fruiting) 1–5 × less than 1 mm.
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 yellow to orange, 6.5–17 × 4–9.5 mm, apex cuspidate, hairy on apex and abaxially near apex;
stamens (10–)20–45, 5–12(–20) mm, filaments monomorphic, filiform;
style 3.5–13 mm.
clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed.
usually clavate to funnelform, sometimes slightly ovoid, 8–18 × 3.3–4.5 mm, base rounded or cuneate, capsule and pedicel well-differentiated.
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–)5–10 per capsule, pyriform, without transverse folds.
= 54.
= 20.
Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia lindheimeri
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.)
As with most species of sect. Mentzelia first described by Urban and Gilg, the delimitation of M. lindheimeri has not been well understood. Phylogenetic results indicate that populations consistent with the types of M. lindheimeri and M. texana are part of a clade restricted to Gulf coastal areas from Florida to northeastern Mexico that also includes M. floridana and M. gracilis. Populations consistent with the M. lindheimeri and M. texana types overlap, and we treat M. texana as a synonym of the former. Mentzelia lindheimeri as treated here is restricted mostly to subtropical southeastern Texas. It is rare in trans-Pecos Texas, although we identified populations of M. lindheimeri in the Davis Mountains. Texas collections annotated as M. incisa Urban & Gilg by Thompson and Zavortink, which served as the basis for Texas reports of that species (for example, D. S. Correll and M. C. Johnston 1970; B. L. Turner et al. 2003) are treated here as M. lindheimeri.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
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WildflowerSearch
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