Common Name: PHLOX FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, vine. Leaf: simple or compound, cauline (or most basal), alternate or opposite; stipules 0. Inflorescence: cymes, heads, clusters, or flower 1; bracts in involucres or not. Flower: sepals generally 5, fused at base, translucent membrane generally connecting lobes, torn by fruit; corolla generally 5-lobed, radial or bilateral, salverform to bell-shaped, throat often well defined; stamens generally 5, epipetalous, attached at >= 1 level, filaments of >= 1 length, pollen white, yellow, blue, or red; ovary superior, chambers generally 3, style 1, stigmas generally 3. Fruit: capsule. Seed: 1--many, when wetted swelling or not, gelatinous or not. Genera In Family: 26 genera, 314 species: America, northern Europe, northern Asia; some cultivated (Cantua, Cobaea (cup-and-saucer vine), Collomia, Gilia, Ipomopsis, Linanthus, Phlox). Note:Leptodactylon moved to Linanthus. eFlora Treatment Author: Robert W. Patterson, family description, key to genera, except as noted Scientific Editor: Robert W. Patterson, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Etymology: (Greek: small, to support, presumably referring to small size) eFlora Treatment Author: Robert Patterson & Carolyn J. Ferguson Reference: Cronquist 1984 Intermountain Flora 4:108
Microsteris gracilis (Hook.) Greene
NATIVE Habit: Annual; generally glandular-hairy above. Stem: erect and simple to decumbent and much-branched, < 20 cm. Leaf: opposite below, often alternate above, 10--30 mm, oblanceolate to lanceolate. Flower: calyx 5--10 mm, membrane narrower than lobes; corolla tube 8--12 mm, +- yellow, lobes 1--2 mm, generally truncate or notched, bright pink (base white or not) to white; stamens, style included. Seed: gelatinous when wet. Chromosomes: 2n=14. Ecology: Dry to moist areas; Elevation: < 3300 m. Bioregional Distribution: CA; Distribution Outside California: to British Columbia, Montana, Colorado, Mexico; also in South America. Flowering Time: Mar--Aug Note: Subspecies, varieties have been recognized; study needed. Synonyms: Microsteris gracilis subsp. gracilis; Microsteris gracilis var. gracilis; Microsteris gracilis subsp. humilis (Greene) V.E. Grant; Microsteris gracilis subsp. humilior (Greene) H. Mason, ined.; Microsteris gracilis subsp. humilior (Greene) H. Mason, ined.; Microsteris gracilis var. humilior (Hook.) Cronquist; Phlox gracilis (Hook.) Greene Jepson eFlora Author: Robert Patterson & Carolyn J. Ferguson Reference: Cronquist 1984 Intermountain Flora 4:108 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Microsteris Next taxon: Navarretia
Botanical illustration including Microsteris gracilis
Citation for this treatment: Robert Patterson & Carolyn J. Ferguson 2012, Microsteris gracilis, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=33480, accessed on January 23, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on January 23, 2025.
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