Limnanthes alba
white meadowfoam
erect.
2–10 cm;
leaflets 5–9, blade oblong, ovate, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, margins entire or shallowly 2-lobed to deeply 3-lobed.
bowl- to bell-shaped;
sepals accrescent or not, lanceolate, ovate, or lanceolate-ovate, 4–8 mm;
petals white or cream (sometimes cream basally, aging or drying pink or lilac), obovate, obovate-cuneate, or obcordate, 8–16 mm, 1–1.5 times as long as wide, 1.25–2.1 times longer than sepals, apex usually emarginate, sometimes truncate;
filaments 3–6 mm;
anthers 1–2 mm;
style 2–6 mm.
gray or dark brown, 3–4 mm, tuberculate or not, sometimes ridged, tubercles gray or dark brown, relatively low and wide.
= 10.
Limnanthes alba
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).
Subspecies gracilis and parishii, previously in Limnanthes gracilis, are more closely related to subsp. alba than they are to each other. The genetic distance between them and other subspecies of L. alba is sufficient that an argument could be made for recognizing both parishii and gracilis as species (R. V. Kesseli, pers. comm.).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Herbage sparsely to densely hairy; sepals densely hairy; petals 10.5-16 mm. | subsp. alba |
1. Herbage glabrous; sepals glabrous or sparsely hairy; petals 8-15 mm | → 2 |
2. Petals 8-10 mm, 1 times as long as wide, obovate; styles 2-3 mm; San Diego County. | subsp. parishii |
2. Petals (8-)12-15 mm, 1-1.3 times as long as wide, obcordate or obovate; styles 3-4 mm; central Sierra Nevada to southern Oregon | → 3 |
3. Leaflet blade narrowly oblong; petals cream, aging or drying lilac, obcordate, sparsely hairy (hairs long). | subsp. versicolor |
3. Leaflet blade ovate to linear-lanceolate; petals usually white, sometimes cream basally, aging or drying pink, obovate, glabrous. | subsp. gracilis |
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
