Mentzelia polita
Encyclopedia
Mentzelia polita is a species of flowering plant in the family Loasaceae
known by the common name polished blazingstar. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in desert mountains, washes, and other dry habitat.
, reaching up to about 30 centimeters in maximum height. The lance-shaped leaves are a few centimeters long and have no teeth or lobes.
The inflorescence
is a cluster of flowers with pale yellow to nearly white petals up to 1.4 centimeters long. The fruit is a cup-shaped utricle under a centimeter wide which contains many lens-shaped, bumpy seeds about 3 millimeters wide.
Loasaceae
The Loasaceae is a family of 15-20 genera and about 200-260 species of flowering plants in the order Cornales, native to the Americas and Africa. The family comprises annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous plants, and a few shrubs and small trees.Genera...
known by the common name polished blazingstar. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in desert mountains, washes, and other dry habitat.
Description
It is a perennial herb producing a peeling white stem from a caudexCaudex
A caudex is a form of stem morphology appearing as a thickened, short, perennial stem that is either underground or near ground level . It may be swollen for the purpose of water storage, especially in xerophytes...
, reaching up to about 30 centimeters in maximum height. The lance-shaped leaves are a few centimeters long and have no teeth or lobes.
The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is a cluster of flowers with pale yellow to nearly white petals up to 1.4 centimeters long. The fruit is a cup-shaped utricle under a centimeter wide which contains many lens-shaped, bumpy seeds about 3 millimeters wide.