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Drummond's stitchwort

Ross' sandwort

Habit Plants annual. Plants perennial, densely pulvinate to loosely cespitose.
Taproots

filiform.

stout, woody.

Stems

erect to ascending, green, 5–20 cm, stipitate-glandular, often densely so, internodes of all stems 1–3 times as long as leaves.

ascending to spreading, green or often purple, 1–3 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.2–1 times as long as leaves.

Leaves

overlapping proximally, perfoliate proximally, with ± loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1 mm;

blade green, flat, 1-veined, oblanceolate to cuneate (proximal) to oblong-lanceolate to ovate (remaining cauline), 5–30(–35) × 2–4 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, ± scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, obtuse to abruptly pointed, dull, glabrous;

axillary leaves absent.

overlapping, ± tightly (vegetative), ± evenly spaced proximally (cauline), connate-perfoliate proximally, with tight, herbaceous sheath 0.2–0.3 mm;

blade upwardly curved, green or often purple, keeled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 3-angled, 1–4 × 0.5–0.7 mm, flexuous, margins rounded, herbaceous, smooth, apex green to purple, rounded, navicular, shiny, glabrous;

axillary leaves well developed.

Inflorescences

7–12-flowered, open cymes, or rarely solitary, terminal;

bracts ± lanceolate, herbaceous, sometimes scarious-margined proximally.

solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);

bracts absent.

Pedicels

reflexed in fruit, 0.5–2.5 cm, stipitate-glandular.

0.1–2 cm, glabrous.

Flowers

hypanthium disc-shaped;

sepals obscurely veined, ovate to broadly elliptic (herbaceous portion ovate to broadly elliptic), 3–6 mm, to 7 mm in fruit, apex green or purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;

petals obovate to oblanceolate, 2–2.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.

hypanthium disc-shaped;

sepals 1-veined, oblong-ovate (herbaceous portion usually purple, oblong-ovate), 1.5–2.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex often purple, obtuse to acuminate, navicular, not hooded, glabrous;

petals obovate to spatulate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex obtuse, entire.

Capsules

sessile, broadly ellipsoid, 6–7.5 mm, equaling or longer than sepals.

on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.

Seeds

dark brown to blackish, orbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, only slightly compressed, 0.7–0.8 mm, echinate with rounded tubercles.

brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.

2n

= 58 (Russia), 60.

Minuartia drummondii

Minuartia rossii

Phenology Flowering late winter–early summer. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Open grassy woodlands, sandy soils Wet, turfy, gravelly, or sandy calcareous barrens, high arctic, alpine tundra, heathlands
Elevation 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) 0-500 m (0-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; LA; OK; TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; NT; NU; YT; Greenland; Europe (Spitzbergen); Asia (Russian Far East)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Minuartia drummondii is easily recognized by the proportionally large corollas (petals to three times as long as sepals) and pedicels reflexing in fruit.

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

Minuartia rossii is the northernmost member of the M. rossii complex (S. J. Wolf et al. 1979; B. Maguire 1958), a pulvinate species of moist arctic areas. While specimens occasionally have many flowers, some specimens have few if any, instead reproducing via small axillary fascicles of leaves or short shoots in the upper leaf axils (see also Ö. Nilsson 2001).

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 124. FNA vol. 5, p. 133.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Minuartia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Minuartia
Sibling taxa
M. arctica, M. austromontana, M. biflora, M. californica, M. caroliniana, M. cismontana, M. cumberlandensis, M. dawsonensis, M. decumbens, M. douglasii, 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
M. arctica, M. austromontana, 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. rubella, M. stolonifera, M. stricta, M. tenella, M. uniflora, M. yukonensis
Synonyms Arenaria drummondii Arenaria rossii, Alsinanthe rossii, Alsinopsis rossii, Arenaria rossii var. apetala, M. orthotrichoides, M. rolfii, M. rossii var. orthotrichoides
Name authority (Shinners) McNeill: Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 24: 147. (1962) (R. Brown ex Richardson) Graebner: in P. F. A. Ascherson et al., Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 5(1): 772. (1918)
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