Minuartia patula
Minuartia macrantha
Pitcher's stitchwort
House's stitchwort, large-flower sandwort
filiform.
occasionally filiform or often woody, somewhat thickened to moderately stout.
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 procumbent, green, 2–15 cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 0.3–1(–2) 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.
moderately to tightly overlapping (proximal cauline), variably spaced, progressively more so distally (distal cauline), connate proximally, with loose, scarious sheath 0.3–0.8 mm;
blade straight to slightly outcurved, green, flat, to 3-angled distally, 1–3-veined, midvein more prominent than 2 lateral veins, subulate to linear, 5–10 × 0.5–1.2 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, smooth, apex green, rounded, thickened and navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among proximal cauline leaves.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
solitary flowers, terminal, or 2–5(–8)-flowered, open cymes;
bracts broadly subulate, herbaceous or scarious-margined proximally.
0.3–3 cm, 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 disc-shaped;
sepals strongly 3-veined, ovate to lanceolate (herbaceous portion lanceolate), 3.5–5 mm, to 5.5 mm in fruit, apex green or purple in part, sharply acute to acuminate, not hooded, glabrous;
petals oblong to obovate, 0.7–1.8 times as long as sepals, apex rounded to blunt, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
on stipe ca. 0.2 mm, broadly ovoid, 3–3.8 mm, shorter than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
black, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged to rounded beak, somewhat compressed, 0.7–1 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
0.2–1.5 cm, glabrous.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia macrantha
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.)
B. Maguire (1958) segregated Minuartia filiorum (as Arenaria filiorum) from M. macrantha on the basis of habit (annual or at most a weak perennial), 3–7 flowers per inflorescence, and petals shorter than the sepals. Some populations may be distinguished using those features; the number of flowers per inflorescence is more variable than Maguire noted, and the seeds of the plants are identical with those of typical M. macrantha. We concur with W. A. Weber’s herbarium annotations that M. filiorum and M. macrantha are conspecific.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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