Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia torreyi
Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf
Torrey's blazing star
5–25 cm.
petiole absent;
blade ovate or obovate, to 45 × 35 mm, intersinus distance 2–4 mm.
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.
0(–1.5) 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, narrowly spatulate to obovate, 4.5–17 × 1.2–5 mm, apex rounded;
stamens 25–45, 7–21 mm;
styles 7–18 mm.
clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed.
3–7 × 3–4.5 mm.
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.
3–9 per capsule, edges prominently to inconspicuously ridged.
= 54.
= 28.
Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia torreyi
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.)
Varieties 2 (2 in flora).
In the phylogenetic study by L. Hufford et al. (2003), Mentzelia torreyi was recovered as the sister to the rest of the genus.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Petals 8–17 mm, yellow; longest stamens to 1 mm longer than petals. | var. torreyi |
1. Petals 4.5–8 mm, orangish yellow, orange, or burnt orange; longest stamens usually much more than 1 mm longer than petals. | var. acerosa |
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
