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white meadowfoam

Photo is of parent taxon

slender meadowfoam

Habit Plants 8–40 cm; herbage glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy.
Herbage

glabrous.

Stems

erect.

Leaves

2–10 cm;

leaflets 5–9, blade oblong, ovate, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, margins entire or shallowly 2-lobed to deeply 3-lobed.

Leaflets

blade ovate to linear-lanceolate.

Flowers

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.

sepals accrescent, lanceolate-ovate, 4–8 mm, glabrous;

petals usually white, sometimes cream basally, aging or drying pink, obovate, 8–10 mm, as long as wide, glabrous;

filaments 3–4 mm;

anthers cream, 1 mm;

style 3–4 mm.

Nutlets

gray or dark brown, 3–4 mm, tuberculate or not, sometimes ridged, tubercles gray or dark brown, relatively low and wide.

ca. 3 mm, tuberculate (tubercles relatively low and wide).

2n

= 10.

Limnanthes alba

Limnanthes alba subsp. gracilis

Phenology Flowering Mar–May.
Habitat Seasonally wet meadows, rocky slopes and basins, often on serpentine soils
Elevation 150-1700 m (500-5600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
OR
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Of conservation concern.

Subspecies gracilis occurs in the Rogue River Valley in Josephine and Jackson counties and in Douglas County.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
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
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 180. FNA vol. 7, p. 181.
Parent taxa Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Inflexae Limnanthaceae > Limnanthes > sect. Inflexae > Limnanthes alba
Sibling taxa
L. bakeri, L. douglasii, L. floccosa, L. macounii, L. montana, L. vinculans
L. alba subsp. alba, L. alba subsp. parishii, L. alba subsp. versicolor
Subordinate taxa
L. alba subsp. alba, L. alba subsp. gracilis, L. alba subsp. parishii, L. alba subsp. versicolor
Synonyms L. gracilis
Name authority Hartweg ex Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 301. (1849) (Howell) Morin: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 1: 1017. (2007)
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