Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia todiltoensis |
|
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Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf |
Jemez Mountains blazingstar |
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Habit | Plants candelabra-form, (5–)20–50 cm. | Plants biennial or perennial, bushlike, with ground-level caudices. |
Stems | solitary or multiple, erect, straight; branches distal, distal longest, antrorse, straight; hairy. |
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Leaves | blade 41–121 × 1.5–40 mm, widest intersinus distance 1.1–3.3 mm; proximal oblanceolate, elliptic, or linear, margins entire or serrate to pinnatisect, teeth or lobes 0–26, slightly antrorse, (0.9–)2.4–18.6 mm; distal oblanceolate, elliptic, lanceolate, or linear, base not clasping, margins entire, serrate, or pinnatisect, teeth or lobes 0–22, slightly antrorse, 0.8–18 mm; abaxial surface with needlelike and occasionally simple grappling-hook and/or complex grappling-hook trichomes, adaxial surface with 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 or 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 light to golden yellow, (10.4–)11.7–24.6 × 1.8–5.1 mm, apex acute to rounded, glabrous abaxially; stamens light to golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, 10–21 × 1.4–4 mm, without anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers twisted or occasionally straight after dehiscence, epidermis papillate; styles 5.5–12.7 mm. |
Capsules | clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed. |
cup-shaped to cylindric, 6.7–20.2 × 4.5–8.5 mm, base tapering or 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 6–12 per cell. |
2n | = 54. |
= 20. |
Mentzelia veatchiana |
Mentzelia todiltoensis |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun. | Flowering Jul–Oct. |
Habitat | Loamy to sandy soils, grasslands, desert scrub, oak-pine woodlands. | Hillside slopes, hilltops, hard gypsum-rich clayey soils. |
Elevation | 200–2500 m. (700–8200 ft.) | 1600–2200 m. (5200–7200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR
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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 todiltoensis occurs in northcentral New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 543. | FNA vol. 12, p. 508. |
Parent taxa | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Trachyphytum | Loasaceae > Mentzelia > sect. Bartonia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | M. albicaulis var. veatchiana | |
Name authority | Kellogg: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 99, fig. 28. (1863) | N. D. Atwood & S. L. Welsh: W. N. Amer. Naturalist 65: 365, fig. 1. (2005) |
Web links |