Minuartia patula
Minuartia muscorum
Pitcher's stitchwort
Dixie stitchwort, starwort
filiform.
filiform.
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, green, 10–55 cm, glabrous or weakly stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of all stems 0.5–2.5 times as long as leaves; wintering stems absent.
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.
not overlapping, connate proximally, with loose, scarious sheath 0.4–0.8 mm;
blade straight to variously curved, green, flat, 1-veined, linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, (5–)10–35(–50) × (0.6–)1.5–3.2 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous or thinly scarious, smooth, apex green, acute, flat, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
5–50+-flowered, open cymes;
bracts lanceolate to subulate, herbaceous.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.6–5.5 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 shallowly disc-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined, lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate), 3–4 mm, to 5 mm in fruit, apex green, acute, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;
petals obovate, 1.6–3 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, ovoid to broadly so, 5.2–7 mm, longer than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, plump to slightly compressed, 0.6–0.8 mm, muriculate-papillate.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia muscorum
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 muscorum is closely related to M. patula, and is distinguished by the often longer and wider leaves, often longer distal stem internodes, consistently three-veined sepals, and shiny, black, muriculate-papillate seeds. B. Maguire (1951) treated this taxon as both a variety of Arenaria patula and a new species; see R. K. Rabeler (1992) for a review of the curious nomenclatural history.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
IL Wildflowers
KS Wildflowers
LA Plants
MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
