Minuartia rossii
Minuartia decumbens
Ross' sandwort
lassicus stitchwort, The Lassics sandwort
stout, woody.
stout, woody.
ascending to spreading, green or often purple, 1–3 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.2–1 times as long as leaves.
ascending to erect, green, 4–15 cm, trailing stems to 30 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems ca. 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, all evenly spaced, connate proximally, with tight, scarious sheath 0.5–0.7 mm;
blade arcuate, green, flat, 3-veined, needlelike to subulate, 3–6(–9) × 0.7–2 mm, ± rigid, margins scarious proximally, apex green, blunt to ± acute, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
5–20-flowered, open cymes;
bracts narrowly lanceolate, herbaceous, thinly scarious-margined.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.5–2.5 cm, sparsely 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 dish-shaped;
sepals (1- or) 3-veined, narrowly lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate), 5–6 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex often purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, sparsely stipitate-glandular;
petals broadly linear to oblong-elliptic, 0.7–0.9 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire to slightly emarginate.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
ellipsoid, 4–4.8 mm, shorter than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
purplish brown, elliptic-oblong, ± compressed, 1.8–2.2 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia decumbens
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 decumbens, like M. rosei and M. stolonifera, is restricted to serpentine soils of northwestern California, specifically to Mule Ridge in Trinity County. The three species are most closely related to the polymorphic M. nuttallii.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
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