Minuartia rossii
Minuartia drummondii
Ross' sandwort
Drummond's stitchwort
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 to ascending, green, 5–20 cm, stipitate-glandular, often densely so, internodes of all stems 1–3 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, perfoliate proximally, with ± loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1 mm;
blade green, flat, 1-veined, oblanceolate to cuneate (proximal) to oblong-lanceolate to ovate (remaining cauline), 5–30(–35) × 2–4 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, ± scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, obtuse to abruptly pointed, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
7–12-flowered, open cymes, or rarely solitary, terminal;
bracts ± lanceolate, herbaceous, sometimes scarious-margined proximally.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
reflexed in fruit, 0.5–2.5 cm, 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-shaped;
sepals obscurely veined, ovate to broadly elliptic (herbaceous portion ovate to broadly elliptic), 3–6 mm, to 7 mm in fruit, apex green or purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;
petals obovate to oblanceolate, 2–2.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
sessile, broadly ellipsoid, 6–7.5 mm, equaling or longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
dark brown to blackish, orbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, only slightly compressed, 0.7–0.8 mm, echinate with rounded tubercles.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia drummondii
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 drummondii is easily recognized by the proportionally large corollas (petals to three times as long as sepals) and pedicels reflexing in fruit.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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