Common Name: MINER'S LETTUCE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; generally fleshy. Stem: 1--many, generally glabrous. Leaf: simple, alternate or opposite. Inflorescence: axillary or terminal; cyme, raceme, panicle, umbel, or flower 1. Flower: bisexual, radial; sepals generally 2(9), free; petals (1)2--19, free or +- fused; stamens 1--many, epipetalous or not, anthers pink, rose, or yellow; ovary superior, chamber 1, ovules 1--many, placenta basal or free-central; styles (0)1--8, generally fused at base, branched. Fruit: capsule, circumscissile or 2--3-valved. Seed: 1--many, shiny or +- pebbly or sculptured, black or gray, generally with oil-filled appendage as food for ants.
Genera In Family: +- 22 genera, +- 230 species: generally temperate America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Kerguelen Is, New Zealand, southern Africa, poorly represented in Europe; some cultivated (Lewisia, Calandrinia). Note: All CA genera previously included in Portulacaceae; details of flowers, seeds require 20× magnification.
Unabridged Note: May include Hectorellaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Miller, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Perennial herb generally from short, thick, +- branched taproot; tuberous root generally 0 (or spheric). Stem: prostrate to erect, scape-like or branched. Leaf: generally in basal rosette and cauline, simple, entire or not; base wide; margin generally +- translucent. Inflorescence: +- scapose; cyme, panicle, raceme, or +- umbel; stems 1--many, generally leafless but bracted, disjointing in age or not, 1--many flowered; pedicel 0--30 mm. Flower: sepals 2--8, free, persistent; petals 4--19, white, cream, yellow, orange, pink, rose, purple, overlapped in bud, often with pink or dark purple veins; stamens 1--50; styles 2--8, fused at base, stigmas 2--8, thread-like. Fruit: 6--9 mm, spheric or ovoid, circumscissile near middle or below, translucent. Seed: 1--50, dark, generally shiny, smooth or finely tubercled, 1--4 mm in size.
Etymology: (Captain Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis & Clark Expedition, 1774--1809) Note: Many hybrids, cultivated, including Lewisia ×whiteae Purdy in California; Lewisia columbiana (A. Gray) B.L. Rob. not in California.
Unabridged Note: Many hybrids, cultivars (Mathew 1989), including Lewisia ×whiteae Purdy in California, as well as Lewisia columbiana (Howell ex A. Gray) B.L. Rob. from Douglas Co., Oregon north to British Columbia; Lewisia maguirei A.H. Holmgren endemic to Nevada; Lewisia sacajaweana B.L. Wilson & E. Rey-Vizgirdas restricted to Idaho; Lewisia tweedyi, endemic to northern Cascades of Washington, British Columbia now placed in Cistanthe.
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Miller & Lauramay T. Dempster
Reference: Wilson et al. 2005 W N Amer Naturalist 65:345--358
Unabridged Reference: Colley & Mineo 1985 Pacific Hort 46; Davidson 2000 Lewisias (Portland); Dempster 1996 Madroño 43:415--416; Elliott 1966 Bull Alpine Gard Soc Gr Brit 34:1--76; Foster, Carroll, & Hipkins 1997 Fremontia 25:15--19; Gankin & Hildreth 1968 Four Seasons 2(4):12--14; Heckard & Stebbins 1974 Brittonia 26:305--308; Hershkovitz 1990 Phytologia 68:267--270; Hershkovitz & Hogan 2003 FNANM 4:476--485; Hohn 1975 Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ of Washington; Mathew 1989 Kew Magazine Monogr; Daubenmire 1975 Syesis 8:9--23