Cherleria obtusiloba is a perennial alpine herb known by the common names alpine sandwort and twinflower stitchwort. It is native to the mountains of western North America from the High Sierra of California to the Colorado Rockies north to Alaska, and to far northeastern Russia (Magadan, Kamchatka, and Yakutia).[2] This is a low plant forming mats or clumps and bearing small thimble-shaped flowers with curving white petals.
Alpine sandwort is a perennial plant that forms a tuft or mat of low growing stems, reaching just 12 centimeters (4.7in) at most,[3] and often just 1 to 5cm to hug the ground.[4] They have a thick and woody taproot and form a mat as much as 40cm (16in) across.[4] Their flowerless stems grow along the ground can be as short as 2cm or more than 20cm and branch. The flowering stems grow upwards, though they sometimes rest on the ground at their base.[5]
On non-flowering stems the leaves tightly overlap while on the flowering stems they are spaced variably. The leaves are thin and needle like to subulate in shape and can be straight or curve outward. They measure just 1–8millimeters long with a width of 0.4–1mm. Towards the base they are fused and have a tight sheath measuring 0.3–1.5mm that can be dry and paper-like or herbaceous.[3]
The fruit is a capsule measuring 3.5–6mm long. They are narrowly egg-shaped or else ellipsoid with three valved openings. Each capsule contains several comma shaped red-brown to brown seeds. They measure 0.6–0.8mm.[6]
The species name, obtusiloba, means "blunt-lobed".[11] It is known by the common namesalpine sandwort,[12]alpine stichwort,[3]twinflower sandwort,[10] and twin-flower sandwort.[11]
Ecology
C. Obtusiloba is a gynodioecious perennial [13] which is a sexually dimorphic breeding system in which females (F, male sterile) and hermaphrodites (H) coexist in the same population.[14]
It is a member of the Caryophyllaceae family, which share flower and pollination traits within members of the family. Plants in the Caryophyllaceae family can have anywhere from one to ten stamen on a single flower. The ovary consists of multiple styles that are not fused together, and can have two to five carpels.[15]
C. obtusiloba cannot vegetatively reproduce and therefore must rely entirely on sexual reproduction to maintain its population.[16] As an alpine cushion plant, C. Obtusiloba has slow growth rates because of the harsh environmental conditions and does not reproduce until it is at least 123cm^2, which can take up to several decades.[16] In fact, according to various studies, Minuartia is one of the longest-lived forbs whose longevity has been estimated with a lifespan of up to 200 years.[16]
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