Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia tricuspis
Veatch's blazing star, white-stem blazingstar, white-stem stick-leaf
desert blazingstar, spiny-hair blazing star, spinyhair stickleaf, three point blazing star
persisting;
petiole present or absent;
blade linear-lanceolate, margins deeply to shallowly lobed.
petioles present;
blade lanceolate, to 12 cm;
margins shallowly lobed, lobes rounded.
petiole absent;
blade ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 17 cm, margins usually deeply lobed to dentate, rarely entire.
petioles usually present, rarely absent;
blade broadly ovate to lanceolate, to 12 cm, base not cordate-clasping, margins dentate to serrate.
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.
green, inconspicuous, not concealing pedicel, ovary, or capsule.
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 white to pale yellow, obovate, 10–30(–50) mm, apex mucronate;
stamens 7–17 mm, less than 1/2 petal length, all fertile, none petaloid (flowers appearing to have 5 petals);
filaments ± monomorphic, linear, distally 2-lobed, lobes 0.6–2.5 mm;
anther stalk usually shorter than filament lobes;
style 10–15 mm.
clavate, 8–28 × 2–4 mm, axillary curved to 70° at maturity, usually inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed.
cylindric to ovoid, 9–18(–23) × 5–8 mm, proximal nodding, distal erect.
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.
constricted and grooved at middle;
seed coat anticlinal cell walls straight to slightly wavy, conspicuous.
= 54.
= 20.
Mentzelia veatchiana
Mentzelia tricuspis
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 tricuspis is morphologically most similar to M. tridentata with differences largely limited to the lengths of the stamen filament lobes (and thus relative lengths of the anther stalks) and shapes of the seeds. However, the species are also distinct geographically, with M. tricuspis found in the southeastern Mojave Desert and northwestern Sonoran Desert and M. tridentata in the central to western Mojave Desert.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
