Minuartia patula
Minuartia decumbens
Pitcher's stitchwort
lassicus stitchwort, The Lassics sandwort
filiform.
stout, woody.
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.
ascending to erect, green, 4–15 cm, trailing stems to 30 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems ca. 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 proximally, all evenly spaced, connate proximally, with tight, scarious sheath 0.5–0.7 mm;
blade arcuate, green, flat, 3-veined, needlelike to subulate, 3–6(–9) × 0.7–2 mm, ± rigid, margins scarious proximally, apex green, blunt to ± acute, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
5–20-flowered, open cymes;
bracts narrowly lanceolate, herbaceous, thinly scarious-margined.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.5–2.5 cm, sparsely stipitate-glandular.
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 dish-shaped;
sepals (1- or) 3-veined, narrowly lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate), 5–6 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex often purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, sparsely stipitate-glandular;
petals broadly linear to oblong-elliptic, 0.7–0.9 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire to slightly emarginate.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
ellipsoid, 4–4.8 mm, shorter than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
purplish brown, elliptic-oblong, ± compressed, 1.8–2.2 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia decumbens
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Minuartia decumbens, like M. rosei and M. stolonifera, is restricted to serpentine soils of northwestern California, specifically to Mule Ridge in Trinity County. The three species are most closely related to the polymorphic M. nuttallii.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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