Minuartia rossii
Minuartia glabra
Ross' sandwort
Appalachian sandplant, Appalachian 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 or ascending, green, 9–20 cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 2–7 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.
overlapping proximally (basal rosette absent at flowering), connate proximally, with ± loose, scarious sheath 0.2–0.5 mm;
blade ascending to spreading, green, 1-veined abaxially, flat, linear, 5–20(–30) × 0.5 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, slightly scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, rounded to acute, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
8–15-flowered, open, leafy cymes;
bracts linear to subulate, mostly herbaceous.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.5–2 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 obscurely veined, oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate, to elliptic (herbaceous portion oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate to elliptic), 1.5–4 mm, to 4.5 mm in fruit, apex green, ± rounded, not hooded, glabrous;
petals clawed, broadly obovate, 1.5–2.2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, shallowly notched.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
on stipe 0.1 mm or shorter, broadly ellipsoid, 3.5 mm, shorter than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
brown, obliquely triangular with adaxial groove, radicle prolonged into short beak, compressed, 0.5–0.8 mm, low-tuberculate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
= 20.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia glabra
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 glabra, along with M. groenlandica (Retzius) Ostenfeld and M. uniflora (Walter) Mattfeld, comprise the so-called granite outcrop arenarias of the southeastern United States. These species have been studied extensively, both systematically (e.g., J. F. McCormick et al. 1971; R. E. Weaver 1970) and for pollination biology (R. Wyatt 1984).
At this time, we follow R. E. Weaver (1970) in maintaining Minuartia glabra separate from M. groenlandica. The species are very similar morpho-logically, including sharing clawed petals and obliquely triangular seeds, like those in most Sagina species but unique among North American Minuartia species; the annual versus perennial habit and, at least in the southeast, phenology and elevation can be used to distinguish these taxa. Further studies in northern populations may be warranted to resolve the question completely.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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