Myosurus | |
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Myosurus minimus | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Ranunculales |
Family: | Ranunculaceae |
Subfamily: | Ranunculoideae |
Tribe: | Ranunculeae |
Genus: | Myosurus L. |
The genus Myosurus, or mousetail, belongs to the family Ranunculaceae. It comprises about 15 species of annual scapose herbs. These herbs are nearly cosmopolitan (lacking in eastern Asia and tropical regions), with a center of diversity in western North America. The flowers are easily recognised by bearing 6 stamens with numerous ovaries on a stalk (accounting for the name "mousetail").
Selected species:
The rose subfamily Rosoideae consists of more than 850 species, including many shrubs, perennial herbs, and fruit plants such as strawberries and brambles. Only a few are annual herbs.
Selaginella is the sole genus in the family Selaginellaceae, the spikemosses or lesser clubmosses, a kind of vascular plant.
Mousetail is used as a common name for species of plants in several genera:
Crypsis is a genus of African and Eurasian plants in the grass family, sometimes referred to as pricklegrass. These are annual grasses with short leaves. A few species are invasive weeds outside their native ranges.
Ivesia is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family known generally as mousetails. They are perennial herbs native to western North America, especially the western United States. Plants of this genus are sometimes treated as members of genus Potentilla.
Ivesia callida is a rare species of flowering plant, in the rose family, known by the common name Tahquitz mousetail. It is a small perennial herb which forms matted patches of hanging foliage on cliff faces. The leaves are strips of oval-shaped green leaflets. Each leaf is up to 7 centimeters long and has several pairs of hairy, glandular leaflets. The thin, green, hanging stems grow up to 15 centimeters long and bear an inflorescence of several flowers. Each flower has five hairy, pointed sepals and five round to oval white petals. The center of the flower contains twenty stamens with disc-shaped anthers and several pistils.
Ivesia jaegeri, is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name Jaeger's mousetail, or Jaeger's ivesia.
Ivesia lycopodioides is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name clubmoss mousetail, or clubmoss ivesia. It is native to the Sierra Nevada and to regions east of the range in California. It may also be found beyond the state line into Nevada. This is a perennial herb which grows in the crevices of rock ledges in the mountains and in wet high-elevation meadows. It produces a rosette of flat to cylindrical leaves up to 15 centimeters long, each of which is made up of many tiny, lobed leaflets. The stems may grow erect or drooping to 30 centimeters long and each holds an inflorescence of clustered flowers. Each flower has hairy, greenish triangular sepals and much larger oval-shaped petals of bright yellow. In the center of the flower are usually five stamens and several pistils. There are three subspecies.
Ivesia pickeringii is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names silky mousetail and Pickering's ivesia. It is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of northern California where it is a plant of mountain meadows, often on serpentine soils. This is a perennial herb forming tufts of long, erect leaves and thin, naked stems. Each leaf is a taillike strip of overlapping lobed leaflets. The reddish to greenish stems reach 30 to 50 centimeters in height and bear inflorescences of clustered flowers. The stems, leaves, and inflorescences are all covered in fuzzy white to gray hairs. Each flower is about a centimeter wide, with pinkish-green triangular sepals and longer, narrower pink or purple petals. In the center of the flower are 20 stamens and a few pistils.
Ivesia santolinoides is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names silver mousetail, stellariopsis, Sierra mousetail and mousetail ivesia. It is endemic to California where it grows in several mountain ranges, including the Sierra Nevada and Transverse Ranges.
Ivesia sericoleuca is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name Plumas mousetail, or Plumas ivesia.
Ivesia longibracteata is a rare species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names Castle Crags ivesia and longbract mousetail. It is endemic to Shasta County, California, where it is known only from Castle Crags. It grows in rocky granite habitat in the temperate coniferous forest.
Ivesia unguiculata is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name Yosemite mousetail.
Myosurus apetalus is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae known by the common name bristly mousetail. It is native to much of western North America, as well as Chile. It grows in moist and wet habitat, such as marshes, meadows, and vernal pools. It is an annual plant forming a small tuft up to about 12 centimeters tall. The leaves are linear and narrow, sometimes threadlike, and reach up to 6 centimeters in length. The inflorescence produces a single flower which has an elongated, cylindrical or cone-shaped receptacle up to 1.5 centimeters long. At the base of the receptacle are small greenish sepals and sometimes petals 1 or 2 millimeters long, although the petals are often absent.
Myosurus cupulatus is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae known by the common name Arizona mousetail. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in moist and dry habitat types in desert, scrub, and woodland. It is an annual plant forming a small tuft up to about 14 centimeters tall. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped and up to 7 centimeters in length. The inflorescence produces a single flower which has an elongated, cylindrical or cone-shaped receptacle up to 4 centimeters long. At the base of the receptacle are curving, spurred sepals and five petals each under 3 millimeters long.
Myosurus minimus is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae known by the common name tiny mousetail or just mousetail. It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. It generally grows in moist habitat types, such as riverbanks and wet meadows.
Myosurus sessilis is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common name vernal pool mousetail. It is native to southern Oregon and the Central Valley of California, where it grows in vernal pools and other wet grassland habitat. It is an annual plant forming a small tuft up to about 10 centimeters tall. The leaves are narrow and linear in shape, measuring up to 7 centimeters in length. The inflorescence produces a single flower which has an elongated, cylindrical or cone-shaped receptacle up to 3 centimeters long. At the base of the receptacle are curving, spurred sepals and three to five tiny petals.
Mousetail Landing State Park is a 1,247-acre (5.05 km2) state park located on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River in Perry County, Tennessee near Linden. The park was established in 1979, making it one of the more recent additions to the Tennessee State Parks system. The name is thought to have been derived from an event during the American Civil War in which a tannery located at a river landing on the site of the present day state park caught fire. The tannery was infested with an unusually large number of mice which fled the burning tannery in the direction of the landing, giving the landing its present name.
Ivesia tweedyi, Tweedy's mousetail or Tweedy's ivesia, is a perennial herb in the rose family. It is native to the Pacific Northwest in the United States, from Washington east to westernmost Montana.