Arctomecon merriamii | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Ranunculales |
Family: | Papaveraceae |
Genus: | Arctomecon |
Species: | A. merriamii |
Binomial name | |
Arctomecon merriamii | |
Arctomecon merriamii is a species of poppy known by several common names, including desert bearpoppy, white bearpoppy, and great bearclaw poppy. It is native to the Mojave Desert of California and Nevada, and parts of southwestern Utah.
This is a taprooted perennial herb producing stout, waxy stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall. Hairy pale green leaves with rounded teeth are located around the base of the plant. The inflorescence at the tip of each stem is composed of one white poppy flower with six petals up to 4 centimeters long and green sepals covered in long, white hairs. The fruit is a capsule up to 3.5 centimeters long containing many tiny seeds.
Botanist Frederick Vernon Coville was first to identify the plant, and named it after naturalist Clinton Hart Merriam, who accompanied Coville on the Death Valley Expedition, the first of a series of expeditions funded by the US Congress to map the flora (phytogeography) and fauna of the United States. [1]
Argemone munita is a species of prickly poppy known by the common names flatbud prickly poppy and chicalote. "Munita" means "armed", in reference to the many long prickles. This flower is native to California, where it is widespread throughout the western part of the state and its eastern deserts, on slopes to 10,000 feet, and along roadsides. Its range also extends into Baja California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Frederick Vernon Coville was an American botanist who participated in the Death Valley Expedition (1890-1891), was honorary curator of the United States National Herbarium (1893-1937), worked at then was Chief botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and was the first director of the United States National Arboretum. He made contribution to economic botany and helped shape American scientific policy of the time on plant and exploration research.
Eschscholzia glyptosperma is a species of poppy known by the common names desert gold poppy, desert golden poppy, and Mojave poppy.
Astragalus funereus is an uncommon species of milkvetch known by the common names Funeral Mountain milkvetch and black milkvetch.
Brickellia desertorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names desert brickellbush and desert brickellia. It is native to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and the southwestern United States.
Calochortus panamintensis is a rare North American species of flowering plants in the lily family known by the common name Panamint mariposa lily. It is native to Inyo and Kern Counties in California, plus adjacent Nye County, Nevada. It is named after the Panamint Range near Death Valley.
Enceliopsis covillei, known by the common name Panamint daisy, is a rare North American desert species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
Eriogonum covilleanum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Coville's buckwheat. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the Coast Ranges from the Bay Area to the hills north of the Los Angeles area. It is uncommon in general but it can be locally common in some places. An upright, reddish-tinged green blooming stem up to around 40 centimeters high is produced by this perennial plant. The leaves are under 2 centimeters long, rounded to oblong in shape, and woolly in texture, especially on the undersides. The many scattered inflorescences are small, compact clusters of tiny flowers in shades of yellow or pinkish to white.
Eriogonum eremicola is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common names Telescope Peak buckwheat and Wild Rose Canyon buckwheat. It is endemic to Inyo County, California, where it is known from only a few occurrences in the Inyo Mountains and Telescope Peak in Death Valley. It grows in sandy to rocky habitat in the forests and woodlands of these desert mountains. It is an annual herb producing a spreading, glandular, reddish green stem up to about 25 centimeters tall. The rounded, woolly leaves are up to about 2.5 centimeters long and are located at the base of the stem. The scattered inflorescences are small clusters of tiny flowers which are white with reddish stripes, aging to solid red, or sometimes yellow. The plant is under protection in Death Valley National Park.
Juncus covillei is a species of rush known by the common name Coville's rush native to North America.
Muilla maritima is a species of flowering plant known by the common names sea muilla and common muilla. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in many types of habitats from the coast to the Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada foothills and other inland mountains, in grassland, woodland, desert, and forest floras. It is a perennial plant growing from a corm and producing an erect flowering stem up to half a meter tall. The onion-like leaves at the base of the stem may be 60 centimeters long. The flowering stem bears an umbel-shaped array of many flowers on pedicels up to 5 centimeters long. Each flower has six tepals which are green-tinged white in color with brownish midribs and no more than 6 millimeters in length. At the center of the flower are six erect stamens with blue, green, or purplish anthers.
Oenothera californica, known by the common name California evening primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family.
Acleisanthes nevadensis is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common names desert moonpod and desert wing-fruit. It is native to a section of the southwestern United States encompassing southern Nevada and adjacent corners of Utah and Arizona. One occurrence has been observed in eastern California. The plant grows in desert habitat such as scrub and rocky washes. This herb produces several spreading stems up to about 30 centimeters in maximum length, sometimes from a woody base. The stems are covered in many leaves with fleshy oval or rounded blades up to 3 centimeters long which are borne on petioles. The herbage of the plant is coated in thick, wide, white, furry hairs, interspersed with shorter, flat hairs. Some hairs are glandular. Flowers occur in leaf axils. Each is a trumpet-shaped bloom with a narrow, tubular green throat up to 4 centimeters long and a round white corolla face about a centimeter wide, sometimes tinged yellow or greenish. There are five long, protruding stamens and a long style tipped with a spherical stigma. The fruit is a ribbed, hairy body with five broad, white wings.
Sisyrinchium funereum is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae known by the common names Funeral Mountain blue-eyed grass and Death Valley blue-eyed-grass. It is endemic to the Mojave Desert of the United States, where it is known only from the Funeral Mountains and Death Valley area in eastern California, and the Ash Meadows area just over the border in Nevada. It grows in wet, highly alkaline habitat, such as seeps and mineral springs.
Frasera albomarginata is a species of flowering plant in the gentian family known by the common name desert green gentian, or desert frasera.
Tetracoccus ilicifolius is a rare species of flowering shrub in the family Picrodendraceae known by the common names hollybush and holly-leaved tetracoccus.
Bahiopsis reticulata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names netvein goldeneye and Death Valley goldeneye. It is native to the Mojave Desert of California and Nevada, where it grows in several types of dry desert habitat. Many of the populations are inside Death Valley National Park.
Agnorhiza invenusta is a species of flowering plant known by the common names Coville's mule's ears and rayless mule's ears. It is found only in California, where it grows in the Sierra Nevada foothills as in Fresno, Tulare, and Kern Counties.
Argemone pleiacantha is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family known by the common name southwestern prickly poppy. It is native to Arizona and New Mexico in the United States and Chihuahua, and Sonora in Mexico, where it occurs in dry woodlands and slopes of foothills and mountains. It is an annual or perennial herb with branching, erect stems up to 1.5 meters tall. The plant is covered in prickles, often densely. The blue-green leaves are divided into sharp, toothlike lobes. The flower buds are up to 2 centimeters long and covered in prickles. They bloom into showy white-petalled flowers which may be up to 16 centimeters wide. The fruit is a capsule up to 4.5 centimeters long which is covered in prickles.
Holmgrenanthe petrophila is a rare perennial desert plant in the plantain family (Plantaginaceae), and the sole species of the genus Holmgrenanthe. It forms low mats of branched stems growing from a woody base. The leaves have small spines along their edges. The solitary yellow flowers are tubular with five free lobes at the end, the upper two pointing backwards, the lower three projecting forwards. The species is known only from about ten locations, most in the Titus Canyon and the adjacent Fall Canyon, all within the Californian section of Death Valley National Park. It grows in limestone crevices on the canyon walls, often on the north face.