Minuartia patula
Minuartia dawsonensis
Pitcher's stitchwort
minuartie de Dawson, rock stitchwort
filiform.
filiform to somewhat thickened.
erect to ascending, green, 5–30 cm, glabrous or sometimes stipitate-glandular distally or throughout, internodes of all stems 1–7 times as long as leaves; wintering stems absent.
erect to ascending, green, 4–30 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 1–10 times as long as leaves.
overlapping proximally, connate proximally, with loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.1–0.5 mm;
blade straight to variously curved, green, flat, prominently 1-veined abaxially, linear, 2–20 × 0.5–1.5(–1.8) mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green or purple, blunt to acute, flat, ± shiny, glabrous to stipitate-glandular;
axillary leaves absent.
overlapping or crowded proximally, variably spaced distally, connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.2–0.5 mm;
blade straight to slightly outwardly curved, green, flat, 1-veined, occasionally 3-veined abaxially, linear to subulate, 4–15 × 0.5–2 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, smooth, apex green or purple, mostly rounded, slightly navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among proximal cauline leaves.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
7–15-flowered (rarely fewer), open cymes;
bracts subulate, herbaceous.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.3–2.5 cm, glabrous.
hypanthium shallowly disc-shaped;
sepals prominently (3- or) 5-veined, narrowly to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly to broadly lanceolate), 4–5.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green or purple, narrowly acute to acuminate, not hooded, glabrous to sparsely stipitate-glandular;
petals obovate, 1.5–2.2(–3) times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.
hypanthium disc-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined, ovate to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion ovate to broadly lanceolate), 2.5–3.2 mm, to 4 mm in fruit, apex green to purple, acute to apiculate, not hooded, glabrous;
petals lancolate to spatulate, 0.5–0.8 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire, or petals absent.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
on stipe ca. 0.2 mm, ovoid, 3.5–4.5 mm, longer than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
dark brown to black, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into tiny beak, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded, somewhat elongate.
= 30, 60.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia dawsonensis
Minuartia patula and the related M. muscorum have received little attention in comparison to the granite-outcrop minuartias, the M. uniflora complex. J. A. Steyermark (1941) studied these taxa and described three forms, based chiefly on pubescence variation. Plants entirely glabrous [forma pitcheri (Nuttall) Steyermark] and those with sepals and pedicels somewhat stipitate-glandular (forma media Steyermark) were segregated from densely stipitate-glandular plants (forma patula). We do not feel that such variations deserve formal taxonomic recognition. Forma robusta, as defined by Steyermark, is here referred to M. muscorum.
Most specimens of Minuartia patula have prominently five-veined sepals (seen especially easily in the glabrous forms); occasional plants from Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia have glabrous sepals with only three strong veins, resembling those of M. muscorum; in other features, including the seeds, they are clearly referable to M. patula. The status of the plants with three-veined sepals remains ambiguous; J. A. Steyermark (1941) included them in his forma media and B. Maguire (1951) included them (in our opinion incorrectly) in his var. robusta.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Although sometimes included in Minuartia michauxii [e.g., H. J. Scoggan’s (1978–1979, part 3) treatment of Arenaria stricta], M. dawsonensis is more closely related to the circumpolar M. stricta.
Minuartia litorea, known from Quebec and Ontario, may deserve recognition. An unpublished chromosome count suggests that it is a recent allopolyploid derived from M. dawsonensis and M. rubella (L. Brouillet, pers. comm.).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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