Minuartia rossii
Minuartia cumberlandensis
Ross' sandwort
Cumberland stitchwort
stout, woody.
filiform;
basal offshoots present.
ascending to spreading, green or often purple, 1–3 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.2–1 times as long as leaves.
erect or ascending, green, (8–)10–15(–20) cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.8–1.2 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.
overlapping proximally, variably spaced distally, connate proximally, with ± loose, scarious sheath 0.1–0.2 mm;
blade spreading or ascending to outwardly curved, green, flat, 1-veined, linear-oblanceolate to linear-spatulate, (10–)20–30(–40) × 1–3 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, minutely scarious, smooth, apex green, obtuse to broadly acute, shiny, glabrous, axillary leaves absent.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
flowers solitary, terminal, or 1–3-flowered cymes;
bracts narrowly lanceolate, herbaceous.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
12–30 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 dish-shaped;
sepals very weakly 3-veined, broadly oblong (herbaceous portion broadly oblong), 2–3 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, obtuse or rounded, not hooded, glabrous;
petals oblong or obovate, 1.6–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded to truncate, entire or slightly emarginate.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
broadly ovoid, (2–)3–3.5 mm, equaling or longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
reddish brown, asymmetrically reniform with radicle prolonged into beak, not compressed, 0.5–0.7 mm, reticulate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
= 20.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia cumberlandensis
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Minuartia cumberlandensis may be most closely related to M. groenlandica and M. glabra; R. Kral (1983) noted that it may be distinguished from either of those taxa by leaf size and shape, seed sculpture, phenology, and habitat preference (shaded sandstone versus sunny granitic flat-rocks).
Minuartia cumberlandensis is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
