Minuartia marcescens

Plants perennial, mat-forming or more commonly straggly. Taproots stout, woody. Stems ascending, green, 4–6 cm, glabrous proximally, stipitate-glandular distally, internodes of flowering stems 6–8 times as long as leaves. Leaves tightly overlapping (vegetative), variably spaced (cauline), usually connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1.5 mm; blade straight to outwardly curved, green, 3-angled, prominently 1-veined abaxially, subulate, 4–8 × 0.3–0.8 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green, rounded to truncate, sometimes apiculate, shiny, glabrous; axillary leaves present among vegetative leaves. Inflorescences solitary flowers, terminal; bracts lance-subulate, herbaceous. Pedicels 0.5–1.5 cm, usually densely stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium cup-shaped; sepals 3-veined, ovate to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion oblong to narrowly ovate), 3–4 mm, not enlarging in fruit proximally, apex often purple, rounded, hooded or not, stipitate-glandular; petals white or rarely lilac, spatulate to spatulate-obovate, 1.5–2 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire. Capsules narrowly ellipsoid, 6–10 mm, longer than sepals. Seeds brown, suborbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, somewhat compressed, 0.9–1.2 mm, smooth.

Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Ultramafic ledges and barrens
Elevation: 200-1000 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), Que., Vt.

Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Marcescent leaves are a characteristic feature of this species.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.