Flora of North America species comparison

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Montia fontana

Montia parvifolia

annual water miner's-lettuce, blinks, spring water chickweed, water blinks, water chickweed, water montia

little-leaf miner's lettuce, showy rock montia, small-leaf montia, small-leafed montia, streambank springbeauty
Habit Plants annual or biennial, never bulbiferous. Plants perennial, often bul-biferous, with branched caudices, mat forming.
Stems

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

simple erect or ascending, 10–30 cm.
Leaves

opposite, sessile;

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

basal and alternate, petiolate;

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

leafy.

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

1–12, showy;

sepals 2–3.5 mm;

petals 5, pink or white, 6–15 mm;

stamens 5, anther pink.
Seeds

0.7–1.2 mm, tuberculate;

elaiosome present.

0.8–1.5 mm;

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

= 20, 40.

= 22, 44.

Montia fontana

Montia parvifolia
Phenology Flowering spring. Flowering late spring-mid summer.
Habitat Pools, springs, meadows, other wet or moist places Moist or wet soils and rocky cliffs of coastal and inland mountains
Elevation 0-3700 m (0-12100 ft) 0-2800 m (0-9200 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]
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC
[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.)

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. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia
M. bostockii, M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. fontana, M. howellii, M. linearis
Synonyms Claytonia hallii, M. clara, M. funstonii, M. hallii, M. minor Claytonia parvifolia, Naiocrene parvifolia
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 87. (1753) (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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