Plant: annual herb; to 60 cm tall
Leaves: to 15 cm long, sessile, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate; margins mostly lobed. BRACTS mostly elliptic to broadly ovate, with whitish bases, often located on the ovary; margins toothed to lobed
INFLORESCENCE: cymose
Flowers: sessile or short-pedicellate; petals yellow to orangish, 4-10 mm long, 3-6 mm wide; staminodia 0; stamens ca. 20-50, all with linear filaments; style 2-5 mm long
Fruit: capsules clavate, tapering to base; base not woody; body 15-30 mm long, the earliest straight or slightly arched. SEEDS pendulous, not winged, those in upper half of capsule grain-like, several-faceted, irregular in cross-section, the angles sharp; testa cells with straight adjoining walls, the surface walls pointed-papillate
Misc: Chaparral to pine woodlands; 1050-2050 m (3500-6800 ft); Mar-Jun
REFERENCES: Christy, Charlotte M. 1998. Loasaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 30(2): 96.
Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Herbaceous annuals, to 60 cm tall, stems slender, erect to ascending, white, shining, glabrous or glacous to pubescent.
Leaves: Generally to 15 cm long, sessile, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate; lower leaves narrowly oblanceolate, upper leaves linear to lanceolate, becoming reduced, blades with deeply pinnatifid margins.
Flowers: Yellow to orangeish, appearing waxy or shiny, petals 7-12 mm long, 3-6 mm wide, bracts mostly elliptic to broadly ovate, with whitish bases, often located on the ovary, margins toothed to lobed, stamens about 20-50, all with linear filaments, flowers borne in cymes.
Fruits: Club-shaped capsules, widening towards the tip, tapering to the base, (clavate), 15-30 mm long, the earliest straight or slightly arched. Seeds pendulous, not winged, those in upper half of capsule grain-like, several-faceted, irregular in cross-section,
Ecology: Found in chaparral to pine woodlands, from 3,500-7,000 ft (1067-2134 m); flowering March-June.
Distribution: Arizona, Nevada, California, and Oregon.
Notes: According to Kearney and Peebles and McDougall, this species is quite similar to M. albicaulis, and M. veitchiana differs in its petals 4-12 mm long or more, and in having deeply pinnatifid leaves, whereas M. albicaulis has petals 3-6 mm long and leaf margins that are mostly merely toothed or subentire.
Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses.
Etymology: Mentzelia is named for Christian Mentzel or Christianus Mentzelius (1622-1701), a 17th century German botanist, philologist, botanical author, personal physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, and father of the first King of Prussia, while veatchiana is named for Andrew Allen Veatch (c. 1831-1871), son of Andrew Alen Veatch.
Synonyms: None
Editor: LCrumbacher 2012
