Minuartia muscorum
Minuartia marcescens
Dixie stitchwort, starwort
minuartie de la serpentine, serpentine sandplant, serpentine stitchwort, serpentine stitchwort or sandwort
filiform.
stout, woody.
erect, green, 10–55 cm, glabrous or weakly stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of all stems 0.5–2.5 times as long as leaves; wintering stems absent.
ascending, green, 4–6 cm, glabrous proximally, stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of flowering stems 6–8 times as long as leaves.
not overlapping, connate proximally, with loose, scarious sheath 0.4–0.8 mm;
blade straight to variously curved, green, flat, 1-veined, linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, (5–)10–35(–50) × (0.6–)1.5–3.2 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous or thinly scarious, smooth, apex green, acute, flat, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1.5 mm;
blade straight to outwardly curved, green, 3-angled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 4–8 × 0.3–0.8 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded to truncate, sometimes apiculate, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
5–50+-flowered, open cymes;
bracts lanceolate to subulate, herbaceous.
solitary flowers, terminal;
bracts lance-subulate, herbaceous.
0.6–5.5 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.5–1.5 cm, usually densely stipitate-glandular.
hypanthium shallowly disc-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined, lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate), 3–4 mm, to 5 mm in fruit, apex green, acute, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;
petals obovate, 1.6–3 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.
hypanthium cup-shaped;
sepals 3-veined, ovate to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion oblong to narrowly ovate), 3–4 mm, not enlarging in fruit proximally, apex often purple, rounded, hooded or not, stipitate-glandular;
petals white or rarely lilac, spatulate to spatulate-obovate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, ovoid to broadly so, 5.2–7 mm, longer than sepals.
narrowly ellipsoid, 6–10 mm, longer than sepals.
black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, plump to slightly compressed, 0.6–0.8 mm, muriculate-papillate.
brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.9–1.2 mm, smooth.
Minuartia muscorum
Minuartia marcescens
Minuartia muscorum is closely related to M. patula, and is distinguished by the often longer and wider leaves, often longer distal stem internodes, consistently three-veined sepals, and shiny, black, muriculate-papillate seeds. B. Maguire (1951) treated this taxon as both a variety of Arenaria patula and a new species; see R. K. Rabeler (1992) for a review of the curious nomenclatural history.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Marcescent leaves are a characteristic feature of this species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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