Claytonia multiscapa

Illustrator: Barbara Alongi

Copyright: Flora of North America Association

Plants perennial, with globose tubers 10–30 mm diam.; periderm 1–5 mm. Stems 10–30 cm. Leaves: basal leaves sometimes absent, petiolate, blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1–8 × 0.2–1.3 cm, apex acute; cauline leaves sessile, blade linear or linear-lanceolate, 2–10 cm, distinctly tapered. Inflorescences multibracteate; proximalmost bracts leaflike, inserted proximal to pedicels of proximalmost cluster of flowers, distal bracts reduced to membranous scales, rarely with 1 bract. Flowers 8–14 mm diam.; sepals 3–5 mm; petals white with yellow spots at base, creamy white, or rich yellow to yellow-orange, 8–10 mm; ovules 6. Seeds 1–2 mm diam., shiny and smooth to minutely tuberculate; elaiosome 1 mm or less. 2n = 16.

Phenology: Flowering May–Aug.
Habitat: Moist to dry grasslands and montane coniferous forests, often in swales with heavy, poorly drained clay soils in the south to wet, rocky tundra in the north
Elevation: 0-2000 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

B.C., Alaska, Idaho, Mont., Wash., Wyo., Eurasia (Russia).

Discussion

Claytonia multiscapa has been the source of taxonomic differences of opinion. Local floras have treated the synonymous C. flava as a distinct species (e.g., R. D. Dorn 1977) while one regional flora (C. L. Hitchcock et al. 1955–1969, vol. 2) united it with C. lanceolata. It is treated here as a distinct species based on the electrophoretic and field work of J. S. Shelly (1998) and the author’s examination of type material.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.