Flora of North America species comparison

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Montia fontana

annual water miner's-lettuce, blinks, spring water chickweed, water blinks, water chickweed, water montia
Habit Plants annual or biennial, never bulbiferous.
Stems

prostrate or decumbent, 1–30 cm, freely rooting at nodes, forming mats.
Leaves

opposite, sessile;

blade oblanceolate to rhombic, 2–20 × 0.5–10 mm.
Inflorescences

leafy.
Flowers

1–8, slightly bilateral;

sepals 1–1.5 mm;

petals 5, connate proximally, white, unequal, 1–2 mm;

stamens 3, anther pink or yellow.
Seeds

0.7–1.2 mm, tuberculate;

elaiosome present.
2n

= 20, 40.

Montia fontana
Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Pools, springs, meadows, other wet or moist places
Elevation 0-3700 m (0-12100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MA; ME; MT; NH; NV; NY; OR; UT; VT; WA; WY; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; YT; SPM; Central America; South America; Africa; Greenland; Asia; Europe; Arctic regions
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Montia fontana displays a multitude of forms varying in stature, leaf shape, and seed size. Segregate species, varieties, and subspecies have been named. Based on my study of worldwide collections of the species, much variation in M. fontana is attributable to phenotypic differentiation of ramets produced by local environmental conditions and unrelated to genetic variation. Until macromolecular or other studies shed light on the variation in M. fontana, it seems pointless to recognize infraspecific taxa or segregate species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 487.
Parent taxa Portulacaceae > Montia
Sibling taxa
M. bostockii, M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia
Synonyms Claytonia hallii, M. clara, M. funstonii, M. hallii, M. minor
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 87. (1753)
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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