Tuesday, June 15, 2010

White Stemmed Blazingstar or White Stemmed Stickleaf

The white stemmed blazingstar or white stemmed stickleaf (Mentzelia albicaulis)
is very similar to the Jones blazingstar or Jones stickleaf (Mentzelia jonesii) and I ultimately decided this was the former, rather than the latter, but I'm not completely sure.
I ultimately made the decision based on the prominent white stems of the plant
which I photographed very near Carey's Castle in the south portion of Joshua Tree National Park, as well as the flowers which I think are a little smaller than the Jones blazingstar.
There are a number of members of the Mentzelia genus in Riverside County and some of the differences between species are very small.  The plant I found was intermeshed with the dead fronds of a Mojave yucca.
The beautiful yellow flower has five petals. Some have orange at the base
and the flowers are followed by s-shaped seed capsules. The leaves are green, hairy, and elliptic to lanceolate (shaped like the head of a lance, narrow and tapering toward the apex) in shape, as well as pinnately lobed (leaflets arranged on each side of a common stock).
The white stems are mostly hairless.

2 comments:

  1. Good-bye slaughtered lamb, hello Jones flowers. Good choice!!:)

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  2. Chris, I'm sorry I couldn't stretch the lamb out any further.

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