Habit: Annual to perennial herb, sometimes subshrub-like; hairs barbed to needle-like, not stinging; stems pale pink or generally +- white, branched or not.
Leaf: linear to ovate, entire to pinnate-lobed; basal in rosettes, generally petioled; cauline generally sessile, +- reduced distally on stem.
Inflorescence: generally cyme (or flower 1); bracts green to white-centered, margin green.
Flower: sepals lanceolate to deltate, persistent; petals generally 5, free, white to yellow or orange; stamens generally many, +- free, generally unequal, inner filaments generally thread-like; outermost stamens opposite sepal lobes often modified, +- widened, or petal-like, with or without anthers or not; ovary generally cylindric, placentas generally 3, style thread-like, stigma 3-furrowed or -lobed.
Fruit: capsule, cup-, barrel-, or urn-shaped to narrowly cylindric, occasionally curved.
Seed: generally many, shape variable, sometimes winged.
Species In Genus: +- 100 species: western North America, +- tropical America.
Jepson eFlora Author: Joshua M. Brokaw, John J. Schenk, Barry Prigge & David Keil
Reference: Schenk & Hufford 2020 Syst Bot Monogr 110:1--230
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Mentzelia
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