Minuartia rossii
Minuartia marcescens
Ross' sandwort
minuartie de la serpentine, serpentine sandplant, serpentine stitchwort, serpentine stitchwort or 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, green, 4–6 cm, glabrous proximally, stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of flowering stems 6–8 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.
tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1.5 mm;
blade straight to outwardly curved, green, 3-angled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 4–8 × 0.3–0.8 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded to truncate, sometimes apiculate, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
solitary flowers, terminal;
bracts lance-subulate, herbaceous.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.5–1.5 cm, usually densely 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 cup-shaped;
sepals 3-veined, ovate to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion oblong to narrowly ovate), 3–4 mm, not enlarging in fruit proximally, apex often purple, rounded, hooded or not, stipitate-glandular;
petals white or rarely lilac, spatulate to spatulate-obovate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
narrowly ellipsoid, 6–10 mm, longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.9–1.2 mm, smooth.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia marcescens
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.
Marcescent leaves are a characteristic feature of this species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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