Claytonia rubra is a species of wildflower in the springbeauty family known by the common names redstem springbeauty and red miner's lettuce. It is native to western North America from southwestern Canada to the United States of America extending from The Black Hills and western slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Cascade and Coast Range, Ochoco and Wallowa Mountains south to the Warner Mountains, Yolla Bolly Mountains, and Sierra Nevada and Transverse Ranges [Mt. Pinos and Mt. San Gorgonio], where it is found in coniferous forests and shrublands.[5]
Claytonia rubra is usually a spring annual or occasionally biennial plant that overwinters.[6] Overwintering plants will have an extremely small tuber.[7] Its stems can be 1 to 20centimeters long.[6]
All the plant's basal leaves, those growing directly from the base of the plant, are attached by tapering petioles, leaf stems. They form a rosette that lays flat to the ground or occasionally is somewhat erect. The stems and leaf blades can be green, pink, or a strong beet-red and are usually 12 to 48 in number, but occasionally as few as two or with more than 48 leaves in overwintering plants.[6] The shape of the leaves varies from narrowly rhombic to ovate, diamond shaped attached at one of the narrow angles to shaped like an egg with the wider portion at the base. Though they can also be spatulate, spoon shaped, or trullate, shaped like a mason's trowel.[7] They measure 0.2–2centimeters long by 0.2–2.5cm wide.[6]
There are also leaves on the flowering stems which may be rounded or squared and sometimes fuse together to create a bowl around the stem with a diameter of 0.5–10centimeters. All the leaves possess blunt (obtuse) tips according to published descriptions and taxonomic treatments.[6]
Each inflorescence has a single bract that is leaflike and mesures 0.3–8millimeters long. The flowers are very small, just 2–5mm in diameter with petals that are 2–3mm. The flowers are white to pink-tinted in color.[6]
Taxonomy
Claytonia rubra was scientifically described by the botanist Thomas J. Howell and named Montia rubra in 1893. It was given its current name by Ivar Tidestrom in 1925.[2]
Together with Claytonia perfoliata and Claytonia parviflora, Claytonia rubra comprises what is almost certainly a polyploid pillar complex based on three diploid species, each occupying a definitive ecological niche.[8] The species is listed as accepted by Plants of the World Online,[2] World Flora Online,[9] and World Plants.[10] However, the status as a species is not without controversy. In 2012 Noel H. Holmgren and co-authors combined all three species into C.perfoliata in volume 2, A of Intermountain Flora writing, "The extreme polymorphism of this abundant, often weedy, notoriously difficult species complex defies separation into meaningful infraspecific units, as proposed by Miller and Chambers."[11] John M. Miller and Kenton L. Chambers having published a monograph on Claytonia in 2006 where they had written about C.rubra, "We agree with Tidestrom (1925) that this taxon is distinct from C.perfoliata, although other workers have recognized it as a variety of C.perfoliata."[6] It is classified in the Montiaceae family with the rest of the Claytonia genus.[2]
Subspecies
There are two accepted subspecies of Claytonia rubra.[2]
Claytonia rubra subsp. depressa
This subspecies was scientifically described in 1887 by Asa Gray as a variety of Claytonia parviflora with the name Claytonia parviflora var. depressa.[3] This subspecies grows along sandy areas of the Pacific coast as well as with sagebrush in the Channeled Scablands of the Pacific Northwest.[6] It also is found along river banks and in fallow feilds.[6] It is generally found at lower elevations than subspecies rubra.[12]
Claytonia rubra subsp. rubra.
The autonymic subspecies consistently has trowel shaped basal leaves.[2] It grows in somewhat dry conditions in coniferous forests, mainly ponderosa pine forests, but also with Jeffrey pines, Douglas firs, and white firs. They are also found under shrubs in moist mountain canyons in the Intermountain West and in quaking aspen groves. They may also be found on moist slopes at the bases of cliffs or under Great Basin sagebrush bushes. It has a wide elevation range, from as low at 500 meters (1,600ft) up to 2,500m (8,200ft).[13]
Synonyms
Claytonia rubra has 26synonyms of the species or one of its two subspecies.[2][3][4]
In English it is known by the similar common names of redstem springbeauty,[14]red-stem springbeauty,[1] and red-stemmed spring-beauty.[15] Alternatively it can be called red miner's lettuce, a common name that indicates the reddish cast of the stems and leaves of this species.[16] It is also occasionally known as erubescent miner's-lettuce.[7][15]
Redstem springbeauty shows a preference for a particular elevation with fewer plants emerging and smaller sizes when planted at different elevations in experiments.[23]
Ackerfield, Jennifer (2015). Flora of Colorado (Firsted.). Fort Worth, Texas: Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press. ISBN978-1-889878-45-4. OCLC910162216.
Miller, John M.; Chambers, Kenton L. (2006). Systematics of Claytonia (Portulacaceae). Systematic botany monographs, v. 78. Ann Arbor, Michigan: American Society of Plant Taxonomists. ISBN978-0-912861-78-4. ISSN0737-8211. JSTOR25027952. OCLC70783019.
McIntyre, Patrick J.; Strauss, Sharon (August 2017). "An experimental test of local adaptation among cytotypes within a polyploid complex". Evolution. 71 (8): 1960–1969. doi:10.1111/evo.13288.
Stoughton, Thomas R.; Miller, John M.; Chambers, Kenton L. (2024). "Claytonia rubra". Jepson eFlora. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
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