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Columbian stitchwort, Rocky Mountain sandwort

Habit Plants perennial, mat-forming.
Taproots

moderately stout, not woody.

Stems

spreading to erect, cespitose, green, 3–15 cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 0.2–0.6 times as long as leaves.

Leaves

tightly overlapping, usually connate proximally, with ± loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.2–0.8 mm;

blade straight to outwardly curved, green, flat, prominently 1-veined abaxially, linear to subulate, 3–10 × 0.1–1 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, smooth, apex green or purple, rounded, navicular, shiny, glabrous;

axillary leaves present among cauline leaves.

Inflorescences

flowers solitary, terminal;

bracts linear to subulate, herbaceous.

Pedicels

0.3–1.5(–2) cm, glabrous.

Flowers

hypanthium disc-shaped, sepals prominently 3-veined, linear to lanceolate (herbaceous portion linear to lanceolate), 2–3 mm, enlarging slightly in fruit, apex usually purple, acute or rounded, not hooded, glabrous;

petals usually absent, if present, rudimentary, linear to oblong, shorter than sepals, apex entire.

Capsules

ellipsoid, 2–3 mm, equaling sepals.

Seeds

0.6–1 mm, brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, minutely tuberculate (50x).

2n

= 30.

Minuartia austromontana

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Dry, rocky, calcareous slopes and fell-fields in alpine areas
Elevation 1200-2800 m (3900-9200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ID; MT; OR; UT; WY; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Minuartia austromontana is the Rocky Mountains member of the M. rossii complex (S. J. Wolf et al. 1979). Specimens from that region identified as M. rossii subsp. columbiana (Raup) Maguire are probably M. austromontana; contrary to B. Maguire’s (1958) interpretation, the former is a synonym of M. elegans.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 120.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Minuartia
Sibling taxa
M. arctica, M. biflora, M. californica, M. caroliniana, M. cismontana, M. cumberlandensis, M. dawsonensis, M. decumbens, M. douglasii, M. drummondii, M. elegans, M. glabra, M. godfreyi, M. groenlandica, M. howellii, M. macrantha, M. macrocarpa, M. marcescens, M. michauxii, M. muscorum, M. nuttallii, M. obtusiloba, M. patula, M. pusilla, M. rosei, M. rossii, M. rubella, M. stolonifera, M. stricta, M. tenella, M. uniflora, M. yukonensis
Name authority S. J. Wolf & Packer: Canad. J. Bot. 57: 1676, fig. 1. (1979)
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