Tripterocalyx crux-maltae

Tripterocalyx crux-maltae is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common names Lassen sandverbena[1] and Kellogg's sand-verbena.

Tripterocalyx crux-maltae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Nyctaginaceae
Genus: Tripterocalyx
Species:
T. crux-maltae
Binomial name
Tripterocalyx crux-maltae
Synonyms

Abronia crux-maltae

Distribution edit

It is native to a section of the Great Basin straddling the far northern California-Nevada border, where it grows in sagebrush habitat. It is nearly endemic to Nevada, with only one occurrence present in Lassen County, California.[2]

Description edit

Tripterocalyx crux-maltae grows in a patch on the ground, the multibranched stems spreading not more than 30 centimeters long. The stems are reddish in color and coated in sticky glandular hairs.

Each leaf has a fleshy green blade up to 7 centimeters long which is borne on a long petiole. The herbage is sticky in texture.

The inflorescence is a head of several elongated flowers borne on long, glandular pedicels all attached at the small central receptacle. Each trumpet-shaped purple or magenta flower may be up to 2.5 centimeters in length and over a centimeter wide at the face of the corolla, with 4 or 5 lobes.

The fruit has wide, thin, net-veined or ribbed wings and hairy surfaces.

References edit

  1. ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Tripterocalyx crux-maltae". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  2. ^ California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Profile: Tripterocalyx crux-maltae

External links edit