Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Dwarf Phlox
Phlox condensata
Phlox family (Polemoniaceae)

Phlox (Phlox condensata) is the sweetest smelling of flowers and it is often so abundant that on still days the air is redolent with its fragrance. But since winds are common in the treeless areas that Phlox favors, it is often necessary to oneself before it and nose into it. You won't regret the effort. In favorable summers of normal moisture, Phlox flowers profusely; in dry summers only the tight green tufts of tiny leaves show. Phlox condensata flowers occasionally have a blue cast to them. This species is very similar to Phlox pulvinata which is in a more open cushion and has more spreading and longer leaves and pink to blue flowers with longer tubes and . Charles Parry collected the first specimen of Phlox condensata in Colorado in 1861. Asa Gray named this species ."Condensata" is Latin for "coming together thickly," i.e., "dense," referring to the thick mat of tiny leaves.


©2006 Steve Matson

Description

, to somewhat woody, , from 1 to 4" high. , , 1/5 to 3/5" long, very narrow, overlapping, rigid, or -, flat, coarsely at leas near the base, surface to (more commonly) short . Flowers , solitary on end of branches. hairy to sticky, about as long as tube. white (sometimes light blue or pink), tube about 2/5" long, definitely longer than , about 1/5" long. Very fragrant. a .

Field Marks

Low tight mat of tiny leaves often completely obscured by fragrant white flowers.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

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

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

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

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

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

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

caespitose -- Grass (or plants) growing in small dense clumps or tufts.

glandular-pubescent -- Covered with gland-bearing hairs. Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids.

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

ciliate -- fringed with hairs

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

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

sessile -- attached without a stalk. For example, a leaf that clasps the stalk. A petiolate leaf has a stalk.

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

prostrate -- Laying flat on the ground.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.

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