Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Cliff Fendlerbush
Fendlera rupicola
Hydrangea/Mockorange family (Hydrangeaceae)

Mesas and low foothills can appear to be dusted with snow from late April to early June, the doings of Cliff Fendler Bush. Flowers are borne in mass profusion, primarily toward the top of the tall, showy shrub thus making identification easy even from a distance. Four large petals with broad tips and very narrow bases make the flower shape distinctive.Pink buds give way to brilliant white flowers, although quite rarely the pink suffuses even the flower. The bush shape is distinctive: columnar with long vertical dark stems. Littleleaf Mock-orange (Philadelphus microphyllus) grows alongside Cliff Fendler Bush but in smaller numbers as a smaller shrub with smaller flowers which are also quite showy and fragrant.

George Engelmann and Asa Gray named this species in 1852 from a specimen collected by F. J. Lindheimer in Texas in 1850. Augustus Fendler was a respected 19th century collector of plants. "Rupicola" is Latin for "rock dweller."


©2004 Robert Sivinski

Description

Branching shrubs to 7+' tall, twigs and branches red to straw-colored, gray, streaked, to slightly hairy, bark slightly shredding. Older branches dark gray. Leaves to almost 2" long, variable in size, shape and . eventually longer than the tube. Petals 1/2 to almost 1" long. body about 1/2", straw-colored, .

Field Marks

Tall, vertical, dark stems with numerous 4-petaled, tapering white flowers.

© Al Schneider

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

glabrate -- Almost smooth and glossy or becoming smooth and glossy with age.

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

persistent -- When the leaves of a plant fail to fall off in the fall they are persistent. Flowers that stay around after fruiting would be persistent.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

pubescent -- downy; covered with short, soft, erect hairs.