Family: Caryophyllaceae,
Pink
Genus: Minuartia
Description
General: copiously glandular-hairy perennial with a stout
taproot and a much-branched base. Stems trailing, forming
mats up 3 dm broad, flowering branches 3-10 cm tall, very
brittle and tending to shatter readily at the nodes.
 Leaves: opposite, 5-10 mm long, usually partly
overlapping except on the upper parts, linear- to awl- or
narrowly needle-shaped, 3-nerved, the middle nerve usually
much more prominent, secondary leaves usually growing
from the axils of the primary leaves along the stems.
 Flowers: few to many in a top cluster, the lower
bracts not greatly reduced. Flower stalks stout, spreading,
5-20 mm long. Sepals 4-6 mm long, linear-lanceolate to
lanceolate-ovate, sharp-tipped, 1- to 3- (rarely 5) nerved.
Petals from shorter to half again longer than the calyx.
Disc rather prominent, the filaments alternating with small
glandlike protuberances, styles 3.
Flowering time: May-August.
 Fruits: ovoid capsules, shorter than the sepals, opening
by 3 entire valves. Seeds dark brown, plump, about 1.5
mm long, with minute bumps in concentric rows.
Distribution
Open sagebrush hills to alpine slopes, mostly on open,
gravelly benches or talus, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also
from B.C. and Alberta to CA, WY and UT. |
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