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inside out flower, redwood inside-out flower, redwood-ivy, small inside-out flower, small-flower vancouveria

inside-out-flower

Habit Herbs, perennial, evergreen or deciduous, 1-5 dm, glabrous, glandular-pubescent, or sparsely hairy.
Rhizomes

extensive, creeping, nodose, producing 3 or more foliage leaves and flowering shoots per year.

Aerial stems

absent.

Leaves

persistent, 2(-3)-ternately compound, 10-30 cm;

petiole 1-15 cm, sparsely hairy, becoming glabrous.

blade deltate in overall outline;

rachis without pulvinae;

leaflet blades rhomboid or rounded pentagonal to ovate to oblong, shallowly 3-lobed, margins entire to sinuate;

venation palmate.

Leaflet

blades rounded-deltate to rounded-pentagonal, often broader than long, obscurely 3-lobed, base cordate, margins conspicuously thickened, crisped, apex minutely notched;

surfaces abaxially glabrous or sparsely hairy, adaxially glabrous.

Inflorescences

peduncle 1-2 dm;

pedicel 1-3 cm, stipitate-glandular.

terminal, racemes or panicles, open.

Flowers

20-50;

bracteoles 6-9, white to yellow, glands absent;

sepals 6, white to yellow, oblanceolate, 4-5 mm, glands absent;

petals 6, white, sometimes lavender-tinged, 3-4 mm, margins entire, apex notched, not reflexed, lateral lobes bearing nectaries, nectaries golden;

filaments without glands.

3-merous, 6-14 mm;

bracteoles 6-9, sepaloid;

sepals 6, white to yellow;

petals 6, white to yellow, hooded with tip reflexed or flat, bearing nectar;

stamens 6;

anthers dehiscing by 2 apically hinged flaps;

pollen exine striate;

ovaries ellipsoid;

placentation marginal;

style lateral.

Fruits

follicles, brown, asymmetric, generally elliptic, dehiscing by 2 valves.

Seeds

1-2, black, lunate, 3-4 mm.

4-7, black to reddish brown;

aril whitish, covering ca. 1/2-2/3 of seed.

Follicles

greenish brown, 4-7 mm including beak, beak 2 mm, glands absent.

x

= 6.

2n

= 24.

Vancouveria planipetala

Vancouveria

Phenology Flowering spring (May–Jun); fruiting spring–summer (Jun–Jul).
Habitat Redwood forests, shaded areas
Elevation 50-1700 m (200-5600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
w United States
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 3 (3 in the flora).

The fruits of Vancouveria are thin-walled follicles that are green or greenish brown at the time of dehiscence. The follicles dehisce by means of two valves that begin below the style and open to the base. The two valves recurve, exposing the seeds downward. In V. hexandra the follicle opens before the seeds are mature. The green seeds continue to grow and ripen in the open follicle. The appendage or aril on Vancouveria seeds has been shown to elaiosome (R. Y. Berg 1972). Ants carry the seeds to their nests and harvest the appendage as a food source.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Leaflet margins not conspicuously thickened; leaves falling when fruits maturing; pedicels lacking glands.
V. hexandra
1. Leaflet margins conspicuously thickened; leaves persistent; pedicels stipitate-glandular.
→ 2
2. Petals yellow, petal apex reflexed; follicles densely stipitate-glandular.
V. chrysantha
2. Petals white, sometimes lavender-tinged, petal apex not reflexed; follicles lacking glands.
V. planipetala
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3. Authors: David Whetstone, Daniel D. Spaulding, T.A. Atkinson.
Parent taxa Berberidaceae > Vancouveria Berberidaceae
Sibling taxa
V. chrysantha, V. hexandra
Subordinate taxa
V. chrysantha, V. hexandra, V. planipetala
Synonyms V. parviflora
Name authority Calloni: Malpighia 1: 266, plate 6. (1887) C. Morren & Decaisne: Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 2, 2: 351. (1834)
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