Minuartia patula
Minuartia yukonensis
Pitcher's stitchwort
Yukon stitchwort
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.
erect to ascending, green, 10–30 cm, minutely retrorsely pubescent proximally, flowering stems stipitate-glandular, usually densely so, internodes of flowering stems 3–5 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.
tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1.8 mm;
blade straight to outwardly curved, green, flat, 3-veined abaxially, midvein more prominent than 2 lateral veins, filiform-linear, 10–18 × 0.8–1.3 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, ciliate, often sparsely so, apex green, often with white callosity, acuminate-pungent, flat to slightly navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
3–13-flowered, open cymes;
bracts lanceolate, herbaceous.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
2–5 cm, densely 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 cup-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate (herbaceous lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate), 6–8 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green to purplish, rounded, hooded, stipitate-glandular, especially proximally;
petals oblanceolate, 1.3–1.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
narrowly ellipsoid, 7–10 mm, longer than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
reniform, ca. 1 mm, tuberculate.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia yukonensis
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 yukonensis is an amphi-Beringian species, reported from two sites in the Russian Far East. Some collections of it may be labeled as Arenaria laricifolia Linnaeus, a European species to which Alaskan material has been misattributed.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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