Flora of North America species comparison

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Montia chamissoi

Montia parvifolia

Chamisso's montia, spring beauty, toad lily, water miner's-lettuce, water montia

little-leaf miner's lettuce, showy rock montia, small-leaf montia, small-leafed montia, streambank springbeauty
Habit Plants perennial, rhizomatous and stoloniferous, usually bulbiferous; rhizomes and stolons slender. Plants perennial, often bul-biferous, with branched caudices, mat forming.
Stems

erect, aerial portion 2–32 cm, subterranean portion 1–15 cm.

simple erect or ascending, 10–30 cm.
Leaves

opposite, petiolate;

blade oblanceolate to rhombic or ovate, short, 2–60 × 1–20 mm.

basal and alternate, petiolate;

blade oblanceolate, 10–70 × 4–12 mm.
Inflorescences

ebracteate.

leafy, from apices of fertile caudex branches (determinate) or from leaf axils of shortened fertile caudex (indeterminate), sometimes bulbiliferous in leaf axils.
Flowers

2–10, often replaced by bulbils;

sepals 2–4 mm;

petals 5, white or pink, 2–4 mm;

stamens 5, anther pink or lavender.

1–12, showy;

sepals 2–3.5 mm;

petals 5, pink or white, 6–15 mm;

stamens 5, anther pink.
Seeds

1–1.5 mm, tuberculate;

elaiosome present.

0.8–1.5 mm;

eliaosome rounded, minute, shorter than 0.5 mm, shiny, appearing smooth.
2n

= 22.

= 22, 44.

Montia chamissoi

Montia parvifolia
Phenology Flowering May–Aug. Flowering late spring-mid summer.
Habitat Wetlands, riverbanks and streamsides from low to high elevations of coastal valleys and mountains Moist or wet soils and rocky cliffs of coastal and inland mountains
Elevation 500-3700 m (1600-12100 ft) 0-2800 m (0-9200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; IA; ID; MN; MT; NM; NV; NY; OR; PA; UT; WA; WY; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

A related species, Montia calcicola Standley & Steyermark, occurs in the Guatemalan highlands.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Montia parvifolia is a variable diploid and tetraploid species. Plants with larger flowers, leaves, and seeds have been treated as var. flagellaris (Bongard) C. L. Hitchcock or as the separate species M. sweetseri Henderson. Because the complex has not been studied using modern methods, and the variation observed in herbarium specimens has no correlated geographical base, I adopt the position of K. L. Chambers (1993) and do not recognize the two above-mentioned taxa at this time. I equate the species situation here to that of M. fontana and choose not to recognize infraspecific taxa.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 487. FNA vol. 4.
Parent taxa Portulacaceae > Montia Portulacaceae > Montia
Sibling taxa
M. bostockii, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. fontana, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia
M. bostockii, M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. fontana, M. howellii, M. linearis
Synonyms Claytonia chamissoi, Crunocallis chamissoi Claytonia parvifolia, Naiocrene parvifolia
Name authority (Ledebour ex Sprengel) Greene: Fl. Francisc., 180. (1891) (Mociño ex de Candolle) Greene: Fl. Francisc., 181. (1891)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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