Parnassia parviflora |
Celastraceae |
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small flower parnassia, small-flower grass-of-parnassus |
bittersweet family, staff-tree family |
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Habit | Herbs with caudices. | Herbs, shrubs, trees, or vines, annual or perennial, deciduous or evergreen, synoecious, dioecious, or polygamomonoecious. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 2–35 cm. |
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Leaves | basal in rosettes; petiole 0.4–2 cm; blade (of larger leaves) ovate to oblong, 6–35 × 5–25 mm, base cuneate to subcordate, apex rounded to subacute; cauline on proximal 1/2 to middle of stem. |
alternate, subopposite, opposite, whorled, or fascicled, simple; stipules absent or present; petiole present or absent; blade margins serrate, dentate, spiny, or entire; venation pinnate, palmate, or 1-veined, sometimes obscure. |
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Inflorescences | unisexual or bisexual, terminal or axillary, cymes, racemes, panicles, thyrses, or fascicles, or flowers solitary. |
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Flowers | sepals spreading in fruit, linear-lanceolate to oblong or elliptic-oblong, 3–6 mm, margins not hyaline, entire, apex obtuse; petals 5–13-veined, oblong to elliptic, 3.5–10 × 4–6 mm, length 1.1–1.5 times sepals, base rounded to cuneate, margins entire; stamens (2–)4–7 mm; anthers 1–1.6 mm; staminodes obovate, divided distally into 5–7(–9) gland-tipped filaments, (2–)3.5–5 mm, shorter than stamens, apical glands suborbicular, 0.2–0.3 mm; ovary green. |
bisexual or unisexual, radially symmetric or weakly asymmetric; perianth and androecium hypogynous or perigynous; hypanthium free, completely adnate to ovary, or absent; sepals (3–)4–5[–7], distinct or connate proximally; petals 0 or (3–)4–5[–7], distinct; nectary present, rudimentary, or absent; stamens 3–5[–10], distinct, free or adnate to nectary; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits; staminodes 0 or [4–]5[–7]; pistil 1, 1–5-carpellate, ovary superior often embedded in nectary to 1/2 inferior, 1–5-locular, placentation axile or parietal; ovules 1–2[–4] or 100–2000+ per locule, anatropous; styles 0, 1, or 3, connate proximally; stigmas 2–5. |
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Fruits | capsules, dehiscence loculicidal, drupes, or nutlike (small, hard-walled, indehiscent, 1-locular, and 1-seeded) [berries or samaras]. |
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Capsules | 7–10 mm. |
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Seeds | 1, 2, 40–70, or 100–2000+ per locule, often winged or covered by brightly colored pulpy aril. |
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2n | = 36. |
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Parnassia parviflora |
Celastraceae |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Wet, calcareous shores, meadows, fens, seepy scree slopes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 10–2900 m. (0–9500 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MI; MT; ND; NV; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NL; NS; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK
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North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Eurasia; Africa; Atlantic Islands; Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Islands; Australia |
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Discussion | Parnassia parviflora has been included in P. palustris by some authors. Small-flowered plants of P. palustris usually have the staminodes divided into about nine filaments distally and the anthers exceed 1.5 mm, but rarely some plants cannot be clearly assigned to one or other of these species. In Nunavut, P. parviflora is known only from Akimiski Island in James Bay. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera ca. 100, species ca. 1400 (12 genera, 34 species in the flora). As treated here, Celastraceae include Hippocrateaceae Jussieu and Parnassiaceae Martinov. Both DNA sequence data and morphology place Hippocratea and its relatives nested within Celastraceae as subfam. Hippocrateoideae Lindley (M. P. Simmons et al. 2001; Simmons 2004, 2004b). Placement of Parnassiaceae (Lepuropetalon and Parnassia) is less certain. The group has long been associated with Saxifragaceae (such as by J. D. Hooker 1865b, A. Cronquist 1981), but broad-scale phylogenetic analyses utilizing DNA sequences have aligned Parnassiaceae with Celastraceae, either as a sister family or as a basal member of Celastraceae (M. W. Chase et al. 1993; Simmons et al. 2001b; Simmons 2004; Zhang L. B. and Simmons 2006). Including Parnassiaceae within Celastraceae follows APGIII (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2009). Glossopetalon (sometimes under the illegitimate name Forsellesia Greene), included within Celastraceae in many local floras in North America, belongs in Crossosomataceae (R. F. Thorne and R. Scogin 1978; V. Sosa and M. W. Chase 2003); see Flora of North America North of Mexico, volume 9, page 9. Some members of Celastraceae are of economic importance. Species of Celastrus, Euonymus, Maytenus, and Paxistima are grown as ornamentals, and Euonymus, Hippocratea, and Maytenus have medicinal uses. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 114. | FNA vol. 12, p. 111. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Celastraceae > Parnassia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. palustris var. parviflora | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | de Candolle: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 1: 320. (1824) | R. Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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