Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia sivinskii |
|
---|---|---|
Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
Sivinski's blazingstar |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants biennial, bushlike or candelabra-form. |
Stems | solitary, erect, straight; branches distal or along entire stem, distal or proximal longest, antrorse, straight; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 32.8–112.2 × 2.9–11.4 mm, widest intersinus distance 1–2.9 mm; proximal oblanceolate to elliptic, margins pinnate, lobes 18–24, perpendicular to leaf axis, 0.8–4 mm; distal elliptic to lanceolate, base not clasping, margins pinnate, lobes 6–16, perpendicular to leaf axis, 1–5.1 mm; abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook, complex grappling-hook, and needlelike trichomes, adaxial surface with needlelike and occasionally simple grappling-hook trichomes. |
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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. |
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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 light to golden yellow, 9–14.7 × 3.1–6.4 mm, apex rounded, glabrous abaxially; stamens light to golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 6.3–11.5 × 2.4–4.9 mm, with anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 4.6–9.9 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cup-shaped, 8.2–12.7 × 5.1–7.7 mm, base tapering to 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 sinuous, papillae 12–21 per cell. |
2n | = 54. |
= 18. |
Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia sivinskii |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Knolls, slopes, and grassland roadsides, gypsum or brown clayey soils. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. [700–8200 ft.] | 1500–1900 m. [4900–6200 ft.] |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
|
CO; NM |
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 sivinskii is known from La Plata County, Colorado, and Rio Arriba and San Juan counties, New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 522. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | M. linearifolia |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | J. J. Schenk & L. Hufford: Madroño 57: 253, fig. 4A. (2010) |
Web links |