Minuartia patula
Minuartia groenlandica
Pitcher's stitchwort
Greenland stitchwort, minuartie du groenland, mountain sandplant, mountain sandwort
filiform.
filiform to slightly 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.
ascending to erect, green, 3–10 cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 2–4 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 proximally (basal rosette), perfoliate, connate proximally, with ± tight, herbaceous to scarious sheath 0.5–1 mm;
blade erect to spreading, green, weakly 1-veined abaxially, flat, ± linear, 4–12(–15) × 0.5 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, slightly scarious to herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
3–5-flowered, open, leafy cymes or sometimes solitary, terminal;
bracts linear to subulate, mostly herbaceous.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.2–1(–2) 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 obscurely veined, elliptical-oblong to obovate (herbaceous portion elliptical-oblong to obovate), 2–4.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, obtuse to rounded, not hooded, glabrous;
petals clawed, broadly obovate, 2–2.2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, shallowly notched.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
on stipe shorter than 0.1 mm, broadly ellipsoid, 5.5 mm, longer than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
brown, obliquely triangular with adaxial groove, radicle prolonged into short beak, compressed, 0.5–0.8 mm, obscurely tuberculate.
= 20.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia groenlandica
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.)
Minuartia groenlandica is morphologically very similar to M. glabra (Michaux) Mattfeld; the two are clearly separable by habit, phenology, and elevation at the southern end of the range of M. groenlandica (R. E. Weaver 1970).
E. Hultén (1964) confirmed the report of Minuartia groenlandica from a mountain in southern Brazil (Morro de Igreja, Santa Catarina). This remains the only report of Minuartia in South America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
IL Wildflowers
KS Wildflowers
LA Plants
MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
Go Botany
