Minuartia obtusiloba
alpine sandwort, alpine stitchwort, twin-flower sandwort
stout, woody.
erect, green, 1–12 cm, trailing stems 2–20+ cm, stipitate-glandular, internodes of flowering stems 1–6 times as long as leaves.
tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.3–1.5 mm;
blade straight to outwardly curved, green, 3-angled, 3-veined abaxially, midrib prominent, lateral veins weak in distal 1/3, needlelike to subulate, 1–8 × 0.4–1 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, sometimes finely ciliate, apex green, rounded to acute, often apiculate, somewhat navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
solitary flowers, terminal, or occasionally in 2–3-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate, herbaceous.
0.3–1.5 cm, stipitate-glandular.
hypanthium cup-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined proximally, narrowly ovate to oblong (herbaceous portion lanceolate to oblong), 2.9–6.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex often purple, narrowly rounded, hooded;
petals ovate to spatulate, 1.2–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
narrowly ellipsoid, 3.5–6 mm, equaling sepals.
reddish tan, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.6–0.7 mm, obscurely sculptured (50x).
= 26, ca. 52, 78.
Minuartia obtusiloba
Minuartia obtusiloba, an amphi-Beringian species, sometimes forms hybrid swarms with M. arctica. Specimens labeled Arenaria sajanensis Willdenow ex Schlechtendal from western North America, sometimes referred to M. biflora (e.g., H. J. Scoggan 1978–1979, part 3), are likely to be M. obtusiloba.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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