Minuartia drummondii
Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 24: 147. 1962.
Plants annual. Taproots filiform. Stems erect to ascending, green, 5–20 cm, stipitate-glandular, often densely so, internodes of all stems 1–3 times as long as leaves. Leaves overlapping proximally, perfoliate proximally, with ± loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5–1 mm; blade green, flat, 1-veined, oblanceolate to cuneate (proximal) to oblong-lanceolate to ovate (remaining cauline), 5–30 (–35) × 2–4 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, ± scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, obtuse to abruptly pointed, dull, glabrous; axillary leaves absent. Inflorescences 7–12-flowered, open cymes, or rarely solitary, terminal; bracts ± lanceolate, herbaceous, sometimes scarious-margined proximally. Pedicels reflexed in fruit, 0.5–2.5 cm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium disc-shaped; sepals obscurely veined, ovate to broadly elliptic (herbaceous portion ovate to broadly elliptic), 3–6 mm, to 7 mm in fruit, apex green or purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular; petals obovate to oblanceolate, 2–2.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched. Capsules sessile, broadly ellipsoid, 6–7.5 mm, equaling or longer than sepals. Seeds dark-brown to blackish, orbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, only slightly compressed, 0.7–0.8 mm, echinate with rounded tubercles.
Phenology: Flowering late winter–early summer.
Habitat: Open grassy woodlands, sandy soils
Elevation: 0-500 m
Distribution
![V5 253-distribution-map.gif](/w/images/1/16/V5_253-distribution-map.gif)
Ark., La., Okla., Tex.
Discussion
Minuartia drummondii is easily recognized by the proportionally large corollas (petals to three times as long as sepals) and pedicels reflexing in fruit.
Selected References
None.