Minuartia rossii
Minuartia michauxii
Ross' sandwort
Michaux's sandplant, Michaux's stitchwort, rock sandwort
stout, woody.
thickened, woody;
crown many-branched, thickened.
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, 8–40 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.5–10+ 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 in proximal 1/3 of stem, variable spaced, usually connate proximally, with loose, scarious sheath 0.2–1 mm;
blade erect to spreading, green, flat or convex to 3-angled, 1–3-veined, prominently so abaxially, filiform, linear to linear-lanceolate, 8–30 × 0.5–1.8 mm, rigid, margins not thickened, ± scarious, smooth, apex green, blunt to pungent, flat to navicular, shiny, glabrous;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
5–30-flowered, lax to congested cymes;
bracts narrowly lanceolate to subulate, herbaceous, margins scarious.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.3–6 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 dish-shaped;
sepals 3-veined, ovate to lanceolate (herbaceous portion ovate to narrowly lanceolate), 3–6 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, acute to mostly acuminate, not hooded, glabrous;
petals oblong-obovate, 1.3–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, ellipsoid, 3–4 mm, usually shorter than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
black, suborbiculate, compressed, 0.8–0.9 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles elongate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
= 30(?), 44.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia michauxii
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.)
We concur with J. A. Steyermark (1963) and G. Yatskievych and J. Turner (1990) that the concept of Arenaria texana originally put forth by Britton requires further study. Plants labeled as Minuartia michauxii var. texana have slightly shorter leaves that are crowded into the proximal one-third rather than one-half of the somewhat shorter stem. The plants are often in the southern part of the range and may, as Steyermark noted, be associated with more open, xeric habitats.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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