Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Alpine Springbeauty
Claytonia megarhiza
Claytonia/Lewisia family (Montiaceae)

Wander through an field, and you will find a number of plants in the seemingly inhospitable rock environment. Among the most enchanting is Spring Beauty with pink buds, half inch white/pink flowers, and thick leaves which change slowly from red to green as they age and gain chlorophyll. Claytonia megarhiza thrives in the meager soils that accumulate between rocks and blooms there for several months. In 1862 Asa Gray named this species from a specimen collected by famed botanist and collector, Charles Parry. "Megarhiza" is Greek for "large roots."


©2005 Walter Siegmund

Description

, from fleshy red, taproots and a thick (woody base of non-woody ). Stems mostly 2-5" long. from 1/2 to 6" long, or , to . almost equal to the leaves or shorter. about 1/5" long. Petals 1/5 to 2/5" long, white to pink. a .

Field Marks

Low growing purple then green leaves with white to pink flowers -- in .

© Al Schneider

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

spatulate -- spoon-shaped.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.

scree -- field of small, loose, slab rock. Common high on mountains.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

caudex -- The woody stem base of some herbaceous perennials.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

alpine -- above the tree line. Thin soil, rocks, short growing season, frost, winter snow.