Potentilla versicolor |
Potentilla subvahliana |
|
---|---|---|
Steens Mountain cinquefoil, varying cinquefoil |
high arctic cinquefoil |
|
Habit | Plants rosetted to ± matted; taproots ± fleshy-thickened. | Plants usually cushion-forming. |
Caudex branches | stout, columnar, sheathed with marcescent whole leaves. |
|
Stems | prostrate to ascending, (0.7–)1.5–2.5(–4) dm, lengths 2–4(–5) times basal leaves. |
erect, 0.2–0.6(–1.1) dm, lengths 2–4 times basal leaves. |
Basal leaves | pinnate with distal leaflets ± confluent, 4–12 × 1–2.5(–3.5) cm; petiole 1–3 cm, straight hairs absent (on early-season petioles) or sparse to common, spreading-ascending to loosely appressed, 1–2 mm, soft, cottony hairs usually absent, glands sparse; primary lateral leaflets 3–5 per side, on distal (1/3–)1/2–2/3 of leaf axis, overlapping, largest ones cuneate to flabellate, 0.5–1.5(–2) × 0.5–1.5 cm, distal 3/4 to whole margin unevenly incised 2/3 to completely to midvein (blade often medially split as well), ultimate teeth or segments 2–5(–8), ± oblanceolate, 3–11 × 1–3 mm, apical tufts to 1 mm, surfaces green to grayish green, not glaucous, straight hairs sparse to common (sparser adaxially), sometimes absent (except on margins), loosely appressed to ascending, 1–2 mm, soft, cottony hairs absent, glands sparse to common. |
0.5–2.5(–3) cm; petiole 0.3–1.5(–2) cm, long hairs common to abundant, spreading to ascending, 1(–2) mm, ± weak, rarely stiff, smooth, crisped/short-cottony hairs usually absent, sometimes sparse, glands sparse to common; leaflets separate to slightly overlapping, central obovate, 0.5–1.2(–1.5) × 0.4–0.9(–1) cm, subsessile to short-petiolulate, base cuneate, margins revolute, distal 1/2 incised 1/2–3/4 to midvein, teeth (1–)2–3(–4) per side, ± distant, surfaces ± dissimilar, abaxial grayish or yellowish white, long hairs 0.5–1 mm, cottony-crisped hairs ± dense (often obscured by long hairs), adaxial dark green to greenish gray, long hairs ± abundant, other hairs absent. |
Cauline leaves | 1–2(–3). |
(0–)1(–2). |
Inflorescences | (1–)3–10-flowered, usually openly cymose. |
1(–2)-flowered. |
Pedicels | 1–3(–5) cm, straight to slightly recurved in fruit. |
1–2(–3) cm in flower, to 5.5 cm in fruit. |
Flowers | epicalyx bractlets lanceolate to elliptic, rarely ovate, 2–5 × 1–2 mm, sometimes apically toothed; hypanthium 3–5 mm diam.; sepals 4–7 mm, apex acute; petals 4–7 × 3–5.5 mm; filaments (1–)1.5–2.5 mm, anthers 0.5–0.8 mm; carpels 10–25, styles 2 mm. |
epicalyx bractlets lanceolate to elliptic-ovate, rarely linear, 3–6(–7) × 0.8–2(–2.3) mm, (1/2–)2/3 to nearly as wide as sepals, margins flat or ± revolute, red glands absent; hypanthium 2.5–4 mm diam.; sepals 3–5(–6) mm, apex obtuse to subacute; petals 4–8(–9) × 4–9 mm, longer than sepals; filaments 1–1.3 mm, anthers 0.3–0.5 mm; carpels 25–35, apical hairs absent, styles conic-columnar, ± papillate-swollen on less than proximal 1/5, 0.9–1.1 mm. |
Achenes | 1.5–1.8 mm, smooth to faintly rugose, not carunculate. |
1.2–1.6 mm. |
2n | = 28 (Russian Far East). |
|
Potentilla versicolor |
Potentilla subvahliana |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer. | Flowering late spring to summer. |
Habitat | Rocky, alpine meadows, seasonally moist slopes, near streams or snowmelt | Rocky alpine heaths, rock outcrops and crevices, scree and talus, dry tundra, coastal bluffs, stabilized sand dunes, usually on calcareous bedrock |
Elevation | 2100–3200 m (6900–10500 ft) | 0–1700 m (0–5600 ft) |
Distribution |
NV; OR
|
AK; AB; BC; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland; e Asia (Russian Far East) |
Discussion | Potentilla versicolor is most common on Steens Mountain in Harney County, Oregon. Collections are known from other mountain ranges in eastern Oregon (some possibly representing distinct taxa) and from near Island Lake in the Ruby Mountains of northeastern Nevada. The species often grows and, apparently, intergrades with P. breweri; it is usually distinct in its lack of cottony hairs. Petals, filaments, and styles tend to be somewhat shorter in P. versicolor than in P. breweri. Collections of P. versicolor have most often been identified as P. breweri, P. millefolia, or P. ovina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The major part of the range assigned to Potentilla vahliana by E. Hultén (1968) belongs to P. subvahliana. Two morphologic types are present within what is accepted here as Potentilla subvahliana. Plants corresponding to the type of P. subvahliana (Wrangel Island) are widespread throughout northeastern Asia (Chukotka) and arctic North America to northwestern Greenland. Some plants in alpine Alaska, Yukon, and east to Amundsen Gulf, Nunavut, are redder, more densely columnar, and less hairy, with smaller leaves having fewer and narrower lobes, more slender one-flowered stems, narrow and entire bracts, narrower sepals, and much narrower epicalyx bractlets. Potentilla subvahliana is tetraploid, perhaps an allopolyploid, and could consist of lineages from different parental combinations. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 171. | FNA vol. 9, p. 203. |
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Multijugae | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Niveae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Rydberg: in N. L. Britton et al., N. Amer. Fl. 22: 344. (1908) | Jurtzev: in A. I. Tolmatchew, Fl. Arct. URSS 9(1): 319. (1984) |
Web links |
|