Munzothamnus

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Munzothamnus
Status TNC G2.svg
Imperiled  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Cichorioideae
Tribe: Cichorieae
Subtribe: Microseridinae
Genus: Munzothamnus
P.H.Raven
Species:
M. blairii
Binomial name
Munzothamnus blairii
(Munz & I.M.Johnst.) P.H.Raven
Synonyms

Malacothrix blairii
Stephanomeria blairii

Munzothamnus is a monotypic genus [2] [3] of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae containing the single species Munzothamnus blairii, which is known by the common name Blair's wirelettuce, or Blair's munzothamnus. It is endemic to San Clemente Island, one of the Channel Islands of California. It grows along steep, rocky cliffsides and canyons on the island. It is a shrub producing a fleshy, woolly stem usually over a meter in height, often approaching two meters. Leaves occur in tufts at the ends of the stem branches. They are up to 15 centimeters long, oblong in shape, and sometimes very shallowly lobed. They are woolly when new but lose their hairs and become shiny green with age. The inflorescence is a large array of up to 35 flower heads. Each head has a cylindrical base under a centimetre long and contains 9 to 12 light lavender or pinkish flowers. Each flower is a ray floret with an erect tube and a strap-shaped ligule with a toothed tip. The ligule is just under a centimetre long. The fruit is a cylindrical, ribbed achene with a white pappus.

Like many Channel Islands endemics, this plant was reduced to rarity by the presence of feral goats on the islands; the goats have been removed. [1]

The Latin name of Munzothamnus refers to the American botanist Philip A. Munz. [4] [5]

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<i>Constancea</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Stephanomeria cichoriacea</i>

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<i>Pleiacanthus</i>

Pleiacanthus is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae containing the single species Pleiacanthus spinosus, which is known by the common name thorn skeletonweed, or thorny skeletonweed. It is native to the western United States from Montana and Idaho to southern California and Arizona, where it grows in many types of mostly dry habitat from deserts to mountains. It is a spindly subshrub producing several slender stems up to 40 or 50 centimeters tall from a woody caudex. The stems divide many times into short, rigid branches which narrow to sharp thorn-tips. The plant is mostly hairless except for brownish woolly tufts at the base and below the basal leaves. The leaves are small and linear on the lower stem, and reduced to scale-like growths on the upper branches. Flower heads occur near the ends of the branches. Each has a cylindrical base wrapped in one layer of phyllaries. The head contains 3 to 5 ray florets, each with an elongated tube and a pale to bright pink ligule. The fruit is an achene tipped with a cluster of pappus bristles which are not plumelike as are those of the Stephanomeria species with which this plant was once classified.

References

  1. 1 2 The Nature Conservancy
  2. Flora of North America: Munzothamnus
  3. Lee, J.; Baldwin, B. G.; Gottlieb, L. D. (2002). "Phylogeny of Stephanomeria and related genera (Compositae–Lactuceae) based on analysis of 18S–26S nuclear rDNA ITS and ETS sequences". Am J Bot. 89 (1): 160–68. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.1.160. PMID   21669723.
  4. "Munz, Philip Alexander (1892-1974)". Jstor. Ithaka. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  5. Lenz, Lee W. (1959). "Hybridization and Speciation in the Pacific Coast Irises". Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany. 4 (2): 237–309.