Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Purshia stansburyana

cliffrose, Stansbury's Antelope brush, Stansbury's cliffrose
Habit Shrubs, evergreen, 10–40(–75) dm.
Stems

young-stem internodes 5–14 mm, sparsely hirtellous or glabrous, usually stipitate-glandular; short-shoot spurs simple or branched, 10–20(–40) × 1.2–2.7 mm.
Leaves

blade dark green adaxially, obovate, (3–)7–12(–19) × (2–)3–8(–13) mm, irregularly lobed in distal 1/2, lobes (3–)5(–7), proximal 2 lobes ascending, oblong to spatulate, narrow, 2–6 mm, distal 3 lobes deflexed, reduced, margins strongly revolute, usually entire, rarely toothed proximally, apex rounded to truncate, abaxial surface white-villous, midvein greenish, glabrate, glandular-punctate, adaxial sparsely hirtellous or arachnoid villous, soon glabrate, ± glandular-punctate.
Pedicels

2.5–4.5 mm.
Flowers

hypanthium obconic, 4–6.5 × 1.5–3 mm, 3–5 mm diam. in fruit, arachnoid-villous to pubescent, usually stipitate-glandular;

petals light to cream-yellow or -white, broadly obovate, 7–13(–15) mm;

stamens (52–)60–90(–125);

carpels (3–)4–7(–10).
Achenes

oblanceoloid, 6–8 × 1.8–2.2 mm, 12-ribbed, persistent style 35–59 mm, plumose hairs 1.4–2.2 mm.
2n

= 18.

Purshia stansburyana
Phenology Flowering Apr–May(–Oct).
Habitat Pinyon-juniper, Joshua tree, yellow pine woodlands, arid desert scrub, desert chaparral
Elevation (1000–)1200–2200(–2600 m) ((3300–)3900–7200(–8500 ft))
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; NM; NV; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Purshia stansburyana is vegetatively similar to P. tridentata var. glandulosa, the latter usually having thicker leaves with narrower abaxial grooves and apiculate apices. The two sometimes can only be distinguished by flowers or fruits.

Purshia stansburyana forms hybrids with P. tridentata vars. glandulosa and tridentata. The hybrids easily can be recognized by their 2–3(–5) carpels and achenes with styles 12–28 mm, among other characteristics (H. C. Stutz and L. K. Thomas 1963). Hybrids between P. stansburyana and P. tridentata var. glandulosa have been given the names Cowania mexicana var. dubia Brandegee and C. alba Goodding. Introgression with P. stansburyana occurs in two populations of P. subintegra.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 9, p. 341.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Dryadoideae > tribe Dryadeae > Purshia
Sibling taxa
P. ericifolia, P. subintegra, P. tridentata
Synonyms Cowania stansburyana, C. mexicana var. stansburyana, P. mexicana var. stansburyana
Name authority (Torrey) Henrickson: Phytologia 60: 468. (1986)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers