SPREADING SANDWORT
File Size: 131 KB
 
Minuartia patula   (Michx. ) Mattf.
[=Arenaria patula Michx.]
Wildcat Glades, Newton County, Missouri
Annual
Height: 2-12 inches
Family: Caryophyllaceae - Pink Family
Flowering Period:   April, May, June, July
Stems: Ascending to erect, simple or branched, glabrous or sometimes stipitate-glandular.
Leaves: Opposite; stipules absent; petiole absent; blade linear, .2 to .8 inch long, .02 to .07, base clasping, apex obtuse to prickly-pointed; without fascicles of secondary leaves in axils of primary leaves.
Inflorescences: Open, terminal cymes or flowers solitary and terminal or axillary, 5-30-flowered.
Flowers: Pedicels spreading to ascending, .12 to 1.2 inch; sepals 5, lanceolate, .16 to inch, apex acute to acuminate; petals 5, white, oblanceolate, .28 to .4 inch, apex emarginated; stamens 10; styles 3.
Fruits: Capsules, narrowly ellipsoid, .12 to .16 inch; seeds reddish brown to black, nearly round, minute, tuberculate.
Habitat: Rocky tallgrass prairies, glades, rock outcrops
Distribution: East 1/3 of Kansas
Comments: Minuartia, for Juan Minuart, a 18th Century Spanish botanist and pharmacist and patula spreading.

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Wildcat Glades, Newton County, Missouri
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Wildcat Glades, Newton County, Missouri