Claytonia rosea
Claytonia rosea

Apparently Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Montiaceae
Genus: Claytonia
Species:
C. rosea
Binomial name
Claytonia rosea
Synonyms[2]
  • Claytonia lanceolata var. rosea (Rydb.) R.J.Davis

Claytonia rosea, commonly called Rocky Mountain spring beauty,[3] western springbeauty[4] or Madrean springbeauty,[5] is a diminutive spring blooming ephemeral plant with pale pink to magenta flowers. It grows a small round tuberous root and it one of the earliest wildflowers of spring in its range.[6] It is found in dry meadows in forests of ponderosa and Chihuahuan pines, and moist ledges of mountain slopes of the Beaver Dam Mountains of Utah, Colorado Front Range, and Sierra Madre Occidental (including the Chiricahua Mountains), south and east to the Sierra Maderas del Carmen of Coahuila.[7][8]

Description

Claytonia rosea grow a small round tuber 20–100 mm in size with a corky or woody skin that is 5-10 mm thick to protect it. The stems can be 2–15 cm long, but are absent when the plant is not large enough to flower.[3] When the plant is young it will have leaves that rise directly from the soil on individual leaf stems (basal leaves). These basal leaves are blade linear to narrowly spatulate, 1–7 cm long and 0.4–2 cm wide. This difference helps to distinguish them from Claytonia lanceolata with its wider leaves. In addition, close examination of the leaves will show that C. rosea has leaves that are single ribbed or indistinctly triple ribbed in contrast to the distinctly triple ribbed leaves of C. lanceolata.[9] When large enough to flower the basal leaves may be absent and instead there will be several cauline leaves, ones attached to the flowering stem, the same blade linear shape and 2–5 cm long. All of its leaves have a pointed end that may be slightly acute or obtuse.[6] The leaves are fleshy/succulent, but not leathery.[3]

Flowers and seeds

The flower or bud will usually have multiple bracts, though rarely there will be just one bract. The bract that is closest to the flower will be leaf like, while the more distant ones are reduced to thin scales. The sepals that enclose the bud open to be 3–5  in length. Each flower is 8–14 mm across with five pastel colored petals in a shade of pink, rose, or magenta. The petals are 8–10 mm long and the flower will have six ovules.[6] The flowers also have five stamens that have pink tips.[10] In the central part of its range in Colorado it blooms from March to May, rarely as late June.[3] In Arizona they bloom as early as February in the lower parts of its habitat and as late at May at higher elevations.[10] The flowers only open during warm and sunny weather, closing at night and during cloudy or wet weather.[11]

The seeds of Claytonia rosea are very small, 2–3 mm, about the same size as a poppy seed. They are smooth, shiny, black in color, and shaped like a lens.[10] The seeds have a 1–2 mm elaiosome, a fleshy structure that is usually associated with ant dispersal of seeds.[6] The seed capsules have three valves.[10]

Taxonomy

Claytonia rosea was scientifically described and named as a species by Per Axel Rydberg in 1904.[2] Though published by a highly respected botanist it was not well accepted as a species and was usually synonymized with Claytonia lanceolata.[12] In 1966 the botanist Ray J. Davis with Idaho State University published an article classifying it as Claytonia lanceolata var. rosea in the journal Brittonia.[13][14] However, in the same year Dianne K. Halleck and Delbert Wiens published an article setting forth an argument in favor of its status as a species. Their extensive field work showing distinctive chromosomal differences and reproductive isolation by ecological and seasonal differences was convincing.[12][15]

As of 2023 most authorities, including World Flora Online (WFO),[16] Plants of the World Online (POWO),[2] Flora of North America,,[6] and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS)[4] recognize it as a valid species. Though occasionally botanical publications continue to use Claytonia lanceolata var. rosea as the Vascular Plants of Arizona Editorial Committee did in Canotia in 2006.[17]

The chromosome number for Claytonia rosea is 16 in diploid individuals,[6] and the species only rarely varies from this.[12]

Habitat and distribution

Claytonia rosea is the earliest flower of spring in the foothills and montane forests. It It grows in small meadows, open hillsides, canyons, ravines, and mesas of montane ponderosa pine, Chihuahuan pine, and oak belts.[12][6] In New Mexico they are reported to be found more often on north facing slopes or in shaded canyons.[5] They are recorded growing from 800–2400 meters in elevation.[6]

The exact range of Claytonia rosea is uncertain with different authorities recording different areas. POWO records it in the four corner states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona and the Mexican state of Coahuila.[2] PLANTS additionally records it as growing in Wyoming and Montana, but does not have information about distribution in Mexico.[4] FNA largely agrees with POWO, but also does not have specific information about what states in Mexico C. rosea grows in.[6]

NatureServe has assessed the global status of Claytonia rosea as "G4 - Apparently Secure", an uncommon but not rare species.[1]

Ecology

The first scientific observation of the Lasioglossum bee species L. perpunctatum was on flowers of Claytonia rosea near Boulder, Colorado by T.D.A. Cockerell and Marion Durbin Ellis.[18][19]

Cultivation

Rocky mountain spring beauty is occasionally grown in rock gardens or by those interested in wildflower gardening. Replanted corms will persist for a time even in less than ideal conditions, but will decline without reproducing if planted in areas subjected to either extreme drying during the summer or being flooded during rainstorms.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 NatureServe (2023). "Claytonia rosea Western Springbeauty". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 POWO (2023). "Claytonia rosea Rydb". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ackerfield, Jennifer (2015). Flora of Colorado (First ed.). Fort Worth, Texas: Botanical Research Institute of Texas. pp. 539–540. ISBN 978-1-889878-45-4.
  4. 1 2 3 USDA, NRCS (2023). "Claytonia rosea Rydb.". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  5. 1 2 Kleinman, Russ. "Claytonia rosea Rydberg". Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness. Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences and the Dale A. Zimmerman Herbarium. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Miller, John M. (2020). "Claytonia rosea Rydberg - FNA". Flora of North America. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Miller, J. M. and K. L. Chambers. 2006. Systematics of Claytonia (Portulacaceae). Systematic Botany Monographs 78: 1-236. ISBN 0-912861-78-9
  8. ↑ "Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness-- Claytonia rosea". wnmu.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  9. ↑ Shelly, J. Stephen; Lesica, Peter; Wolf, Paul G.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E. (1998). "Systematics and conservation status of Claytonia lanceolata var. flava (Portulacaceae)". Madroño; a West American journal of botany. 45: 69. ISSN 0024-9637. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Claytonia rosea - western springbeauty". Yavapai County Native & Naturalized Plants. Prescott, AZ: Arizona Cooperative Extension. 13 December 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  11. ↑ Dingwell, Sue (14 April 2022). "Spring Comes to Joder Ranch". Colorado Native Plant Society. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Halleck, Dianne K.; Wiens, Delbert (1966). "Taxonomic Status of Claytonia rosea and C. lanceolata (Portulacacae)". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. 53: 205–212.
  13. ↑ POWO (2023). "Claytonia lanceolata var. rosea (Rydb.) R.J.Davis". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  14. ↑ Davis, Ray J. (October 1966). "The North American Perennial Species of Claytonia". Brittonia. 18 (4): 293–294. doi:10.2307/2805145.
  15. ↑ Stoughton, Thomas R.; Jolles, Diana D.; O’Quinn, Robin L. (17 June 2017). "The Western Spring Beauties, Claytonia lanceolata (Montiaceae): A Review and Revised Taxonomy For California". Systematic Botany. 42 (2): 283–300. doi:10.1600/036364417X695475. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  16. ↑ WFO (2023). "Claytonia rosea Rydb". World Flora Online. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  17. ↑ Bair, Allison; Howe, Marissa; Roth, Daniela; Taylor, Robin; Ayers, Tina (2006). "Portulacaceae Purslane Family". Canotia. Tempe, AZ: Vascular Plant Herbarium, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. 2: 4. LCCN 2006234105. OCLC 64637240.
  18. ↑ "Lasioglossum perpunctatum (Ellis, 1913)". Discover Life. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  19. ↑ Ellis, Marion Durbin (1913). "Seven New North American Bees of the Genus Halictus (Hym.)". Entomological news, and proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: Entomological Rooms of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 24 (5): 201–211. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  20. ↑ Barr, Claude A. (1983). Jewels of the plains : wild flowers of the Great Plains grasslands and hills. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 60. ISBN 0-8166-1127-0.
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