Minuartia patula |
Minuartia marcescens |
|
---|---|---|
Pitcher's stitchwort |
minuartie de la serpentine, serpentine sandplant, serpentine stitchwort, serpentine stitchwort or sandwort |
|
Habit | Plants winter annual or annual. | Plants perennial, mat-forming or more commonly straggly. |
Taproots | filiform. |
stout, woody. |
Stems | 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, green, 4–6 cm, glabrous proximally, stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of flowering stems 6–8 times as long as leaves. |
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. |
tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1.5 mm; blade straight to outwardly curved, green, 3-angled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 4–8 × 0.3–0.8 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded to truncate, sometimes apiculate, shiny, glabrous; axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves. |
Inflorescences | 5–30-flowered, open cymes; bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous. |
solitary flowers, terminal; bracts lance-subulate, herbaceous. |
Pedicels | 0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular. |
0.5–1.5 cm, usually densely stipitate-glandular. |
Flowers | 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 cup-shaped; sepals 3-veined, ovate to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion oblong to narrowly ovate), 3–4 mm, not enlarging in fruit proximally, apex often purple, rounded, hooded or not, stipitate-glandular; petals white or rarely lilac, spatulate to spatulate-obovate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire. |
Capsules | on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals. |
narrowly ellipsoid, 6–10 mm, longer than sepals. |
Seeds | reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate; tubercles low, rounded. |
brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.9–1.2 mm, smooth. |
Minuartia patula |
Minuartia marcescens |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–early summer. | Flowering summer. |
Habitat | Prairies, meadows, limestone barrens, and rocky outcrops in sandy, clayey, or gravelly soils | Ultramafic ledges and barrens |
Elevation | 0-500 | 200-1000 m (700-3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; OH; OK; PA; TN; TX; VA; WI |
VT; NF; QC |
Discussion | 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. Marcescent leaves are a characteristic feature of this species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 131. | FNA vol. 5, p. 128. |
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Minuartia | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Minuartia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Arenaria patula, Alsinopsis patula, Alsinopsis pitcheri, Sabulina patula | Arenaria marcescens, Arenaria laricifolia var. marcescens |
Name authority | (Michaux) Mattfeld: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 57(Beibl. 126): 28. (1921) | (Fernald) House: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 7: 132. (1921) |
Web links |