Flora of North America species comparison

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Montia parvifolia

Montia fontana

little-leaf miner's lettuce, showy rock montia, small-leaf montia, small-leafed montia, streambank springbeauty

annual water miner's-lettuce, blinks, spring water chickweed, water blinks, water chickweed, water montia
Habit Plants perennial, often bul-biferous, with branched caudices, mat forming. Plants annual or biennial, never bulbiferous.
Stems

simple erect or ascending, 10–30 cm.

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

basal and alternate, petiolate;

blade oblanceolate, 10–70 × 4–12 mm.

opposite, sessile;

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

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

leafy.
Flowers

1–12, showy;

sepals 2–3.5 mm;

petals 5, pink or white, 6–15 mm;

stamens 5, anther pink.

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

0.8–1.5 mm;

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

0.7–1.2 mm, tuberculate;

elaiosome present.
2n

= 22, 44.

= 20, 40.

Montia parvifolia

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

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. FNA vol. 4, p. 487.
Parent taxa Portulacaceae > Montia Portulacaceae > Montia
Sibling taxa
M. bostockii, M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. fontana, M. howellii, M. linearis
M. bostockii, M. chamissoi, M. dichotoma, M. diffusa, M. howellii, M. linearis, M. parvifolia
Synonyms Claytonia parvifolia, Naiocrene parvifolia Claytonia hallii, M. clara, M. funstonii, M. hallii, M. minor
Name authority (Mociño ex de Candolle) Greene: Fl. Francisc., 181. (1891) 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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