Triteleia montana |
Triteleia |
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mountain triteleia, Sierra triteleia, slender triplet lily |
brodiaea, triplet-lily, triteleia |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, scapose, from fibrous-coated corms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | 10–30 cm × 2–5 mm. |
1–3, basal; blade narrowly lanceolate (linear in Triteleia ixioides), keeled, channeled, glabrous, margins entire. |
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Scape | 5–20(–25) cm, ± scabrous. |
erect, cylindrical, 1–5 mm diam., rigid. |
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Inflorescences | umbellate, open, bracteate; bracts green (purplish in T. lemmoniae), ± lanceolate, scarious. |
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Flowers | perianth yellow, aging purple, 12–17 mm, tube slender, narrowly funnelform, attenuate at base, 4–7 mm, lobes somewhat spreading, with brown midvein, 8–10 mm, ca. twice as long as tube; stamens attached at 1 level, equal; filaments linear, 5–6 mm, more than 1/2 as long as perianth lobes, apical appendages absent; anthers cream or blue, 1–1.5 mm; ovary equal to stipe; pedicel 0.5–3 cm. |
perianth 6-tepaled, connate proximally into tube of varying length and shape, usually funnelform, lobes similar, usually ascending to spreading; stamens 6, epitepalous; filaments distinct, adnate to perianth tube in 1 or 2 rows, equal or of 2 unequal lengths, free portions flattened, sometimes dilated at base to form triangle, apical appendages usually absent, when present sometimes forming a crown; anthers versatile, usually curving away from stigma; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary superior, green or colored like perianth (yellow in T. peduncularis, white in T. clementina), stipitate, 3-locular, ovules anatropous, 2–several per locule; style 2–4 mm; stigma weakly 3-lobed; pedicel ± erect, often articulate, usually longer than perianth (shorter in T. crocea). |
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Fruits | capsular, ovoid, dehiscence loculicidal. |
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Seeds | black, ridged on 1 side, subglobose, rounded, coarsely and irregularly pitted, minutely granulate or granulate-reticulate, coat with crust. |
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x | = 7, 8. |
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2n | = 16. |
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Triteleia montana |
Triteleia |
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Phenology | Flowering summer (Jun–Jul). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Open montane coniferous forest, gravelly plains, granite ridges | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1200–3000 m (3900–9800 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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w North America; n Mexico |
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Discussion | Locally rather plentiful, Triteleia montana appears to have a disjunct distribution in the Sierra Nevada range north and south from Yosemite, though future collections may bridge the gap between the distributions currently indicated. Molecular data suggest that it is related to T. lemmoniae of Arizona (J. C. Pires 2000). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 15 (14 in the flora). For discussion of relationships, see under Brodiaea. Molecular evidence (J. C. Pires 2000) suggests the artificiality of the subgenera and sections that have been recognized within Triteleia, consistent with R. F. Hoover (1941), who recognized sections for reasons of convenience only. Thus, those infrageneric taxa are not utilized here. Several species of Triteleia are exceedingly variable, and polyploidy is common: multiples of both x = 7 and x = 8 occur, suggesting that chromosomal changes have played a significant evolutionary role within the genus (M. P. Burbanck 1941). Triteleia is widely distributed west of the Rocky Mountains, but its greatest diversity is in the “Klamath area” of northwestern California and southern Oregon. The corms of some species were eaten by native Americans. Among the most important diagnostic characters within Triteleia are features of the androecium, particularly stamen height and insertion relative to the perianth, and the presence of apical filament appendages. These characters are easily seen in the field with a hand lens. When collecting flowering specimens, one should make a point of mounting a few dissected flowers in a manner that displays these critical characters. The only Triteleia species that does not occur in the flora, T. guadalupensis L. W. Lenz, is endemic to Guadalupe Island off Baja California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 345. | FNA vol. 26, p. 338. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Triteleia | Liliaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Brodiaea gracilis, Hookera gracilis, T. gracilis | Brodiaea section Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Calliprora, Brodiaea subg. Hesperoscordum, Brodiaea section Seubertia, Brodiaea subg. T., Calliprora, Hesperoscordum, Seubertia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Hoover: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 25: 95. (1941) | Douglas ex Lindley: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 15: under plate 1293. (1830) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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