Minuartia rossii
Minuartia groenlandica
Ross' sandwort
Greenland stitchwort, minuartie du groenland, mountain sandplant, mountain sandwort
stout, woody.
filiform to slightly thickened.
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, 3–10 cm, glabrous, internodes of all stems 2–4 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), perfoliate, connate proximally, with ± tight, herbaceous to scarious sheath 0.5–1 mm;
blade erect to spreading, green, weakly 1-veined abaxially, flat, ± linear, 4–12(–15) × 0.5 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, slightly scarious to herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves absent.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
3–5-flowered, open, leafy cymes or sometimes solitary, terminal;
bracts linear to subulate, mostly herbaceous.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.2–1(–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, elliptical-oblong to obovate (herbaceous portion elliptical-oblong to obovate), 2–4.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, obtuse to rounded, not hooded, glabrous;
petals clawed, broadly obovate, 2–2.2 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 shorter than 0.1 mm, broadly ellipsoid, 5.5 mm, longer 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, obscurely tuberculate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
= 20.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia groenlandica
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 groenlandica is morphologically very similar to M. glabra (Michaux) Mattfeld; the two are clearly separable by habit, phenology, and elevation at the southern end of the range of M. groenlandica (R. E. Weaver 1970).
E. Hultén (1964) confirmed the report of Minuartia groenlandica from a mountain in southern Brazil (Morro de Igreja, Santa Catarina). This remains the only report of Minuartia in South America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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