Minuartia rossii
Minuartia caroliniana
Ross' sandwort
long-root, pine barren sandplant, pine barren stitchwort, pine-barren stitchwort or sandwort
stout, woody.
stout, woody;
crown with radiating subterranean branches.
ascending to spreading, green or often purple, 1–3 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.2–1 times as long as leaves.
erect to ascending, green, 8–28 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.3–10 times as long as leaves.
overlapping, ± tightly (vegetative), ± evenly spaced proximally (cauline), connate-perfoliate proximally, with tight, herbaceous sheath 0.2–0.3 mm;
blade upwardly curved, green or often purple, keeled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 3-angled, 1–4 × 0.5–0.7 mm, flexuous, margins rounded, herbaceous, smooth, apex green to purple, rounded, navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves well developed.
variably spaced distally, overlapping (proximal 1/3), connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.2–1.5 mm;
blade straight to slightly spreading, green, concave, 3-veined, lateral veins less prominent, lanceolate to subulate, 2–13 × 1–5 mm, rigid, margins rounded, scarious in proximal 1/2–2/3, smooth, apex green, blunt to apiculate, navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
5–12+-flowered, narrow cymes;
bracts ovate to subulate, ± scarious.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.2–3 cm, densely stipitate-glandular.
hypanthium disc-shaped;
sepals 1-veined, oblong-ovate (herbaceous portion usually purple, oblong-ovate), 1.5–2.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex often purple, obtuse to acuminate, navicular, not hooded, glabrous;
petals obovate to spatulate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex obtuse, entire.
hypanthium disc- to cup-shaped;
sepals obscurely veined, ± broadly ovate (herbaceous portion ± broadly ovate), 2.5–3 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, rounded, not hooded, stipitate-glandular proximally;
petals spatulate, 2.5–3.2 times as long as sepals, apex broadly rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
on stipe ca 0.1 mm, ovoid, 4.7–5 mm, longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
brown, suborbiculate, without prolonged beak, not compressed, 0.6–0.65 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia caroliniana
Minuartia rossii is the northernmost member of the M. rossii complex (S. J. Wolf et al. 1979; B. Maguire 1958), a pulvinate species of moist arctic areas. While specimens occasionally have many flowers, some specimens have few if any, instead reproducing via small axillary fascicles of leaves or short shoots in the upper leaf axils (see also Ö. Nilsson 2001).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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