Montia parvifolia |
Portulacaceae |
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little-leaf miner's lettuce, showy rock montia, small-leaf montia, small-leafed montia, streambank springbeauty |
purslane family |
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Habit | Plants perennial, often bul-biferous, with branched caudices, mat forming. | Subshrubs [shrubs] or herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, often succulent or fleshy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | simple erect or ascending, 10–30 cm. |
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Leaves | basal and alternate, petiolate; blade oblanceolate, 10–70 × 4–12 mm. |
opposite, subopposite, or alternate and sometimes secund, sometimes rosulate or subrosulate, exstipulate (except Portulaca and Talinopsis, with nodal or axillary hairs regarded as stipular); blade margins mostly entire, occasionally dentate to crisped. |
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Inflorescences | leafy, from apices of fertile caudex branches (determinate) or from leaf axils of shortened fertile caudex (indeterminate), sometimes bulbiliferous in leaf axils. |
axillary or terminal, cymose, racemose, paniculate, or umbellate, sometimes glomerate, spikelike, or with flowers solitary, open to congested. |
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Flowers | 1–12, showy; sepals 2–3.5 mm; petals 5, pink or white, 6–15 mm; stamens 5, anther pink. |
mostly radially symmetric, sometimes slightly irregular (in Montia); sepals 2–9; petals (1–)2–19 or sometimes absent, distinct or connate basally; stamens 1–many, opposite and sometimes basally adnate to petals; gynoecium 2–9-carpelled; ovary 1, superior (half-inferior to inferior in Portulaca), 1-locular throughout or initially plurilocular and becoming 1-locular distally (in Portulaca), placentation basal or free-central, ovules 1-many; style present, sometimes branched, or absent; stigmas 1–9. |
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Fruits | capsular. |
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Seeds | 0.8–1.5 mm; eliaosome rounded, minute, shorter than 0.5 mm, shiny, appearing smooth. |
smooth or sculptured, with or without strophioles or elaiosomes. |
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x | = 4–9, 11, 13, 15, 23. |
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2n | = 22, 44. |
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Montia parvifolia |
Portulacaceae |
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Phenology | Flowering late spring-mid summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Moist or wet soils and rocky cliffs of coastal and inland mountains | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-2800 m (0-9200 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC
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Primarily Southern Hemisphere; poorly represented in Eurasia |
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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.) |
Genera 20–30, species ca. 500 (9 genera, 91 species in the flora). The eastern New World species of Portulacaceae seem to have a closer relationship with the African species, and the western New World species a closer one with the Australian species, than the two New World groups have with each other to each other. The outer perianth segments, referred to herein as sepals, are held by some (e.g., T. Eckardt 1976) to be modified bracteoles, the petals then representing the true sepals. However, the traditional interpretation, adopted here and in most North American floras, still finds current support (R. C. Carolin 1987). A comparable situation prevails with respect to the cauline leaves in Claytonia and other genera, which are widely interpreted to be foliaceous bracts (R. C. Carolin 1987); here again, as is appropriate in a descriptive context, the traditional terminology is employed. In Talinopsis and Portulaca, the stipular nature of the nodal or axillary hairs also has been a matter of discussion. The question was revisited by R. Geesink (1969), who denied their stipular origin. The relationships of the family are not a matter of dispute (A. Cronquist 1981; R. C. Carolin 1987); the same cannot be said for the relationships and delimitations of the genera, which have always been labile. They are, at present, the subject of active research, which has led to the current acceptance of Phemeranthus and Cistanthe. Changes in the generic classification are discussed in the treatments of the genera concerned. Because of the uncertain relationships, the genera and species are listed alphabetically. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 457. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Portulacaceae > Montia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Claytonia parvifolia, Naiocrene parvifolia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Mociño ex de Candolle) Greene: Fl. Francisc., 181. (1891) | Adanson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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