Montia diffusa

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Montia diffusa
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Montiaceae
Genus: Montia
Species:
M. diffusa
Binomial name
Montia diffusa
Synonyms [1]
  • Claytonia diffusaNutt.
  • Limnalsine diffusa(Nutt.) Rydb.

Montia diffusa is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names branching montia and spreading miner's lettuce native to North America.

Contents

Distribution

It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it occurs mainly west of Cascade Range crest. [2] It grows in moist to wet wooded areas, including areas recently affected by wildfire.

Description

Montia diffusa is an annual herb growing erect to about 20 centimeters in maximum height, its stem branching intricately. The diamond or lance-shaped leaves are alternately arranged and measure up to 5 centimeters in length, not counting their long petioles. The inflorescence is a raceme of 3 or more flowers. Each flower has usually five pink or white petals under half a centimeter in length blooming from a nearly closed cup of small green sepals wrapped around their bases.

Related Research Articles

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Montia is a genus of plants in the family Montiaceae. Species in this genus are known generally as miner's lettuce or water chickweed. All of the species in the genus have edible leaves.

<i>Commelina diffusa</i> Species of flowering plant

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Lathyrus palustris is a species of wild pea known by the common name marsh pea. It is native to Europe, Asia, and North America. It is a perennial herb with leaves made up of oval-shaped or oblong leaflets a few centimeters long. It has branched, coiled tendrils. The plant bears an inflorescence of two to eight pinkish purple pea flowers each up to two centimeters wide. The fruit is a dehiscent legume pod.

<i>Arabis lemmonii</i> Species of plant

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<i>Arctostaphylos nevadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Chaenactis carphoclinia</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Chenopodium leptophyllum</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Cirsium brevistylum</i> Species of thistle

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<i>Cirsium loncholepis</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium loncholepis is a rare species of thistle known by the common name La Graciosa thistle. It is endemic to California, where it is known from about 15 remaining occurrences in wetlands where southwestern San Luis Obispo County borders northwestern Santa Barbara County. It grows in coastal scrub and sand dunes, marshes, and moist grasslands in the watersheds of local rivers, including the Santa Maria River. It is a federally listed endangered species.

<i>Crepis acuminata</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Lythrum hyssopifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Lythrum hyssopifolia is a species of flowering plant in the loosestrife family known by the common names hyssop loosestrife and grass-poly. It is native to Europe but it is known elsewhere, including parts of Australia and eastern and western North America, as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It is rare in the United Kingdom, with occasional isolated populations. It often grows in moist habitats, such as marshes and wet agricultural fields, rice paddies, for example.

Erythranthe montioides is a species of monkeyflower known by the common name montia-like monkeyflower. It is native to the Sierra Nevada and its foothills in California, and it has been observed in the mountains near Carson City, Nevada. It grows in moist areas in the mountains and disturbed, rocky soils. It was formerly known as Mimulus montioides.

<i>Montia chamissoi</i> Species of flowering plant

Montia chamissoi is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names of water minerslettuce, water montia, Indian lettuce, and toad lily. It is native to much of western North America from Alaska to the southwestern and central United States and also in British Columbia. It grows in moist to wet soils in a variety of habitat types, such as meadows, wetlands, plains, and montanes. It is sometimes aquatic, anchoring in mud and floating in water.

<i>Montia howellii</i> Species of flowering plant

Montia howellii is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names Howell's miner's lettuce and Howell's montia. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in moist to wet habitat, including vernal pools and meadows. It sometimes grows in shallow standing water such as puddles. The species is known from fossilized seeds recovered from sediments of the Pleistocene Tomales Formation and from a small paleoflora at San Bruno. Further, Daniel Axelrod discussed Montia howellii as one of the biogeographically significant species comprising the Millerton paleoflora at Tomales.

<i>Montia linearis</i> Species of flowering plant

Montia linearis is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names narrowleaf miner's lettuce and narrow-leafed montia. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Utah, where it grows in moist to wet areas in a number of habitat types, including forests and meadows, woodlands, and grassland. The plant is also known from some areas of the southeastern United States, including Mississippi.

<i>Montia parvifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Montia parvifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names little-leaf miner's lettuce, small-leaved blinks and small-leaved montia. It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to Montana, where it grows in moist to wet areas in several types of mountain habitat.

<i>Phlox diffusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox diffusa is a species of phlox known by the common name spreading phlox. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to the southwestern United States to the Dakotas, where it grows in many types of habitat, including rocky, high elevation mountain slopes. It is a very compact mat-forming perennial herb growing in cushions or patches of short, decumbent stems. The linear, lance-shaped, or needle-like leaves are no more than 1.5 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in bundles on the short stems. The inflorescence is a solitary tubular flower around a centimeter long. It has a flat white or pale pink or blue corolla with five lobes each just under a centimeter in length.

<i>Fallopia baldschuanica</i> Species of flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae

Fallopia baldschuanica is an Asian species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including Russian-vine, Bukhara fleeceflower, Chinese fleecevine, mile-a-minute and silver lace vine. It is native to Asia, and it can be found growing wild in parts of Europe and North and Central America as an introduced species.

<i>Velezia rigida</i> Species of flowering plant

Velezia rigida is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to southern Europe. It is also present in northern California where it is an introduced species. It is an annual herb growing from a taproot and producing a hairy, glandular, branching green or purplish stem up to 40 centimeters tall. The linear leaves are up to 2 centimeters long. Solitary flowers occur in the leaf axils. Each flower has a very long, cylindrical, ribbed calyx of fused sepals forming the tubular throat of the flower, measuring at least a centimeter in length. At the top of the tube is the flower corolla which has five pink or purplish petals.

<i>Physaria parvula</i> Species of flowering plant

Physaria parvula is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name pygmy bladderpod. It is native to the Western United States, where it can be found in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

References

  1. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species , retrieved 8 May 2016
  2. US Forest Service Fire Ecology