Thelypodium howellii

Last updated

Thelypodium howellii
Thelypodium howellii spectabilis.jpg
Thelypodium howellii spectabilis
Status TNC G1.svg
Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Brassicales
Family: Brassicaceae
Genus: Thelypodium
Species:
T. howellii
Binomial name
Thelypodium howellii

Thelypodium howellii, the Howell's thelypody [1] or Howell's thelypodium, is a rare plant of the Western United States. It is endemic to a relatively small area on the borders of three western States: Oregon, Nevada, and California.

Contents

Description

The Thelypodium howellii plant is biennial. It is often somewhat hairy, especially near the base, but may be hairless and waxy in texture. It produces a slender, branching, erect stem up to 70 centimeters tall. The leaves are mostly located in a rosette around the base. Leaves located higher on the stem may have clasping bases.

The inflorescence is a raceme of widely spaced flowers with greenish white or purplish sepals and pale blue or purple, spoon-shaped petals. The fruit is a silique up to 4.5 centimeters long containing plump brown seeds. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Subspecies

Distribution, habitat, and ecology

This plant is endemic to a small area stretching from north-eastern Oregon to north-eastern California. [6] It lives in alkaline or adobe meadows and seeps, river valleys and moist plains in Great Basin sagebrush scrub. [2] The fire ecology of this plant is not known at present.

Conservation status and threats

U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region Sensitive Species.

California Native Plant Society List 1B.2.

NatureServe California State Rank: S2.2; Global Rank: G2

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Endangered.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Conservation Strategy website reports that a large portion of this species' habitat has been converted to agricultural land, and its numbers are being limited by competition with invasive weeds, changes in hydrology, pressure from cattle grazing, and mowing in preparation for growing season. [8]

Field identification

Howell's thelypody flowers from May to July. Var. spectabilis, known only from Malheur Co., Oregon, is larger than var. howellii, has larger, more strongly purple flowers, and is a federally listed species. [6]

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<i>Aconitum columbianum</i> Species of plant

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

Allium howellii is a North American species of wild onion known by the common name Howell's onion. It is endemic to California.

Draba howellii is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names rosette draba and Howell's draba. It is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon, where it grows in rock crevices. This is a tuft-forming perennial herb, sometimes coated in hairs. Most of the leaves are located at the base of the plant, each oval in shape, up to 2.5 centimeters long, and sometimes edged in fine teeth. There may be one or more leaves on the stem as well. The erect inflorescence bears up to 30 yellow mustardlike flowers. The fruit is an oval silique up to a centimeter long containing several seeds.

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Orobanche valida is a species of broomrape known by the common name Rock Creek broomrape. It is endemic to California, where its two uncommon subspecies grow in mountainous habitats separated by several hundred miles. Howell's broomrape, ssp. howellii, is limited to the North Coast Ranges north of the San Francisco Bay Area, where it grows in chaparral, often on serpentine soils. The similarly rare subspecies valida is known from only four occurrences in the Transverse Ranges. The plant is a parasite growing attached to the roots of other plants, generally shrubs; ssp. howellii can often be found on Garrya species. The plant produces a hairy, glandular purple stem up to about 35 centimeters tall. As a parasite taking its nutrients from a host plant, it lacks leaves and chlorophyll. The inflorescence is a small cluster of tubular purple flowers 1 to 2 centimeters long.

Pedicularis howellii is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae known by the common name Howell's lousewort. It is endemic to the Siskiyou Mountains of the Klamath Range in southern Oregon and northern California, where it grows on the edges of coniferous forests. This is a perennial herb producing one or more stems up to 45 centimetres (18 in) tall from a long caudex. The leaves are up to 20 centimetres (8 in) long, lance-shaped, and divided into many toothed oval lobes; those higher on the stem may be unlobed. The basal leaves fall away early. The inflorescence is a small raceme of flowers occupying the top of the stem. Each white to light purple flower is up to one centimetre long and is sickle-shaped, with a curved beak-like upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip which may be tucked into the hairy mass of sepals. The plant is pollinated by bumblebees including Bombus mixtus. Between the flowers are hairy to woolly triangular bracts. The fruit is a capsule just under a centimeter long containing seeds with netted surfaces.

<i>Ribes velutinum</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Streptanthus glandulosus</i> Species of flowering plant

Streptanthus glandulosus is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name bristly jewelflower. It is native to California and southwestern Oregon, where it grows in many types of habitat, including grassland, chaparral, and woodlands. Genetic and other analyses indicate that it is a species complex with ten subspecies which evolved as populations were isolated from each other. The complex includes subspecies previously considered separate species, such as the rare Tiburon jewelflower endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area. Plants in the complex are variable. In general they are annual herbs growing 10 centimeters to over a meter in height. They may be hairless hairy to bristly. The ephemeral basal leaves have blades borne on winged petioles. Leaves higher on the stem are linear to lance-shaped and clasp the stem at their bases. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each flower has an urn-shaped calyx of sepals one-half to over one centimeter long which can be almost any color from white to yellowish to pink or purple to nearly black. Purple, white, or purple-veined white petals emerge from the tip. The fruit is a straight or curving silique up to 11 centimeters long.

Streptanthus howellii is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Howell's jewelflower. It is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California. It grows in mountain forests on serpentine soils. It is a perennial herb producing a hairless, often waxy-textured stem up to 70 or 80 centimeters in maximum length. It is generally unbranched. The ephemeral basal leaves have fleshy oval blades with smooth or toothed edges, borne on petioles. Leaves farther up the stem are similar but smaller and narrower, with shorter petioles or none. They do not clasp the stem. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each has a calyx of purple sepals under a centimeter long with purple-tipped yellow petals emerging from the tip. The fruit is a thin, smooth, curved silique up to 12 centimeters long.

<i>Tauschia howellii</i> Species of plant

Tauschia howellii is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names Howell's umbrellawort and Howell's tauschia. It is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of far southern Oregon and far northern California, where it is limited to nine occurrences in the Siskiyou Mountains. It grows in mountain forests on gravelly granite soils, often among stands of Shasta red fir. Despite its rarity it is stable and not considered very endangered. It is a perennial herb growing 30 to 80 centimeters tall. It is hairless in texture. The thick leaves have blades which are divided into leaflets large, sharp teeth and edges curved up, and borne on long petioles. The short inflorescence is a compound umbel of yellow flowers on a few short rays. The fruit is oblong, ribbed, and just a few millimeters long.

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

Thelypodium is a genus of flowering plants in the mustard family. There are 16 to 20 species, all native to western North America. Thelypody is a common name for plants in this genus.

Thelypodium crispum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name crisped thelypody.

Thelypodium flexuosum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name nodding thelypody. It is native to the Great Basin and surrounding plateau habitat in the northwestern United States, from California and Nevada to Idaho.

<i>Thelypodium integrifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Thelypodium integrifolium is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names entireleaved thelypody and foxtail thelypodium. It is native to much of the western United States, including the Great Basin and surrounding plateaus and deserts.

<i>Thelypodium milleflorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Thelypodium milleflorum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names manyflower thelypody and many-flowered thelypodium. It is native to western North America, particularly the Great Basin and surrounding plateau, desert, and foothill habitat, where it grows in sagebrush and scrub.

<i>Thelypodium stenopetalum</i> Species of flowering plant

Thelypodium stenopetalum is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names slenderpetal thelypody, slender-petaled thelypodium and slender-petaled mustard. It is endemic to the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, where it is known from only three or four extant occurrences in moist mountain meadows near Big Bear Lake. Its remaining habitat is considered seriously threatened and the plant is a federally listed endangered species in the United States.

Thelypodium eucosmum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names arrow-leaf thelypody and world thelypody. It is endemic to Oregon in the United States, where it is known from Grant and Wheeler Counties. There are also historical records of the plant from Baker County.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Thelypodium howellii". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Howell's Thelypodium". Eagle Lake Field Office. U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management. Archived from the original on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-05-01.
  3. Payson, Edwin Blake (1922). "Study of Thelypodium and its Immediate Allies". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 9 (3): 265–266. doi:10.2307/2990054. JSTOR   2990054.
  4. Schofield, W.B. (2002). Field Guide to the Liverwort Genera of Pacific North America. University of Washington Press. p. 181.
  5. Rollins, Reed C. (1993). Hickman, James C. (ed.). The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California . University of California Press. pp.  444–446.
  6. 1 2 3 Hitchcock, C. Leo; Arthur Cronquist; Marion Ownbey; J. W. Thompson (1964). Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Part 2: Salicaceae to Saxifragaceae. University of Washington Press. p. 549.
  7. Jepson Manual treatment for Thelypodium howellii subsp. howellii
  8. "Howell's Spectacular Thelypody". Conservation Strategy. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 19 July 2019.