Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Alpine Mountainsorrel
Oxyria digyna
Smartweed-Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae)

Mountain Sorrel (Oxyria digyna) is often found near melting snows in rocky areas. The plant has green flowers that are replaced by showy red/brown seed pods. The massed, round, thick leaves (often with red tinges) are a common and picturesque sight in and rock . Mountain Sorrel is related to the much larger sorrels found in the foothills. Linnaeus named this species Rumex digynus in 1753, and in 1765 John Hill placed it in a new , Oxyria. Greek gives us both "Oxys" for "sour" and "aria" for "possession," thus "possessing sourness," alluding to the nice tangy sour taste of Sorrel leaves. "Digyna," Greek for "two women," refers to "two ."


©2014 Susan McDougall, Trees Live Here.

Description

Long-lived , long taproots. Plants from 2 to 14" tall, often ground-hugging. Herbage often red tinged. Stems usually , juice acrid. Leaves mostly with from 1/3 to 5" long. Leaf to 2" across, with base. Flower clusters to 8" long. minute to 1/10" long. an , flattened, ~1/4" broad, prominently .

Field Marks

Nearly round, red tinged with vertical clusters of tiny flowers turning red and brown in seed.

© Al Schneider

cordate -- heart-shaped.
subcordate -- somewhat heart-shaped.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

carpel -- the basic female reproductive organ in flowering plants, consisting of the stigma, style, and ovary.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

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

subalpine -- Just below the timberline.

perianth -- the non-reproductive part of the flower such as petals and sepals.

orbicular -- Circular or nearly circular in outline.

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

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

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

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

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.

A simple leaf blade is one that is not divided into separate leaflets.

wing -- A maple seed has wings.

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