Minuartia rossii
Minuartia stolonifera
Ross' sandwort
Scott Mountain sandwort, stolon or Scott Mountain sandwort, stolon sandwort
stout, woody.
moderately 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.
± erect, gray-green, 10–20 cm, glabrous or often stipitate-glandular, especially distally, internodes of stems 1–6 times as long as leaves (proximal leaves often shorter than internodes), 2–3 stolons radiating from crown, 6–20 cm.
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, loosely proximally, evenly spaced, connate proximally, with tight, scarious sheath 0.3–0.8 mm;
blade ± straight to outwardly curved, gray-green, shallowly concave, 3-veined, often prominently so abaxially, needlelike, 5–11 × 0.5–0.9 mm, rigid, margins not thickened, scarious in proximal 1/2, stipitate-glandular, apex green to purple, acute to obtuse, navicular, dull, stipitate-glandular throughout;
axillary leaves weakly developed among proximal cauline leaves.
solitary flowers, axillary or terminal (rarely present);
bracts absent.
7–25-flowered, open cymes;
bracts lanceolate to subulate, herbaceous, margins scarious.
0.1–2 cm, glabrous.
0.3–1.5 cm, often 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 1–3-veined (weakly in flower), ovate to lanceolate, (herbaceous portion narrowly lanceolate to linear-oblong), 3.5–4.8 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green to purple, narrowly acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular;
petals broadly oblanceolate, 1.6–1.8 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire.
on stipe ca. 0.1–0.2 mm, spheric, 1.5–2.5 mm, equaling sepals.
sessile, ovoid, 3.5–5 mm, equaling sepals.
brown, suborbiculate, compression unknown, ca. 0.6 mm, obscurely reticulate.
reddish brown to brown, oblong-elliptic, 2–2.4 mm, tuberculate.
= 58 (Russia), 60.
Minuartia rossii
Minuartia stolonifera
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.
Minuartia stolonifera, like M. decumbens and M. rosei, is restricted to serpentine soils of northwestern California, specifically to Scott Mountain in Siskiyou County. The three species are most closely related to the polymorphic M. nuttallii.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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USDA Plants Database
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