Minuartia rossii
Minuartia cismontana
Ross' sandwort
cismontane minuartia
stout, woody.
filiform.
ascending to spreading, green or often purple, 1–3 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.2–1 times as long as leaves.
erect, green or reddish purple, (5–)8–20(–25) cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 5–7 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.
not overlapping, connate proximally, with loose, scarious sheath 0.1–0.3 mm;
blade green or reddish purple, 3-veined proximally, midvein prominent abaxially, lateral veins 0.2–0.25 times as long as blade, straight to outwardly curved, flat, lance-attenuate to linear, 2–7(–9) × 0.5–1.2(–1.8) mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious proximally, smooth, apex green or purple, rounded to acute, often mucronate, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves occasionally present.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
5–20-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate, herbaceous, often scarious-margined proximally.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
(0.7–)1–3(–3.5) cm, glabrous.
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-shaped;
sepals strongly 3(–5)-veined, lance-linear to lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate to lance-oblong), 3.2–5.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green to purple, acute, not hooded, glabrous;
petals oblanceolate to oblong-elliptic, 1–1.5 times as long as sepals, apex obtuse to rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
on stipe about 0.2 mm, ± ovoid, 3.5–5.8 mm, equaling or longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
brown or reddish, asymmetically reniform with radicle prolonged into beak, not compressed, 0.7–1 mm, minutely papillate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia cismontana
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.)
Minuartia cismontana is closely related to M. californica and M. pusilla, and has been overlooked as the former for many years. Phenology and elevation appear to segregate the species in areas of California where the ranges of M. cismontana and M. californica overlap (R. J. Meinke and P. F. Zika 1992).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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