Minuartia rossii
Minuartia rubella
Ross' sandwort
arctic sandwort, beautiful sandwort, boreal sandplant, boreal stitchwort, minuartie rougeâtre, red seed sandwort, reddish sandwort
stout, woody.
filiform to somewhat thickened;
rhizomes absent.
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, 2–8(–18) cm, moderately to densely stipitate-glandular (very rarely glabrous), internodes of stems 1–10 times as long as leaves; trailing stems absent.
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, ± tightly, distally (cauline), concentrated proximally (cauline), connate proximally, with often loose, usually scarious sheath 0.2–0.7 mm;
blade ± straight or outwardly curved, green, flat to 3-angled, prominently 3-veined abaxially, subulate, 1.5–10 × 0.3–1.3 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, smooth, apex green or purple, acute to apiculate, often navicular, shiny, sparsely to densely ciliate, often stipitate-glandular;
axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
3–7+-flowered, open cymes or rarely flower solitary, terminal;
bracts broadly subulate to narrowly lanceolate, herbaceous, margins scarious.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.2–1.5 cm, 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 disc-shaped;
sepals prominently 3-veined, ovate to lanceolate (herbaceous portion oblong to narrowly ovate), 2.5–3.2 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green to purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;
petals elliptic, 0.8–1.3 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. 0.2 mm, ovoid, 4.5–5 mm, longer than sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
reddish brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.4–0.5 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, elongate, rounded (to angled on edge) (50x).
= 58 (Russia), 60.
= 24.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia rubella
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.)
Distinct among the arctic/alpine Minuartia species with its stiff, three-veined leaves, M. rubella is a circumpolar calciphile. We follow Ö. Nilsson (2001) in not recognizing infraspecific taxa that have been described based at least partly on pubescence. Variety propinqua has been applied to glabrous plants, which occur infrequently and sporadically throughout the range of the species. Where they do occur they are often intermixed with sparsely stipitate-glandular plants. This glabrous variety is rarely encountered in western North America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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