Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Herbaceous annuals or biennials to perennials, to 60 cm tall, stems solitary, erect, striate, yellow to brownish-yellow, herbage scabrous to canescent.
Leaves: Alternate, ovate to ovate-triangular, 2-4 cm long, margins remotely dentate, deeply incised to somewhat trilobed, acute at the tips, bases rounded, surfaces hirsute-scabrous to canescent, blades short-petiolate.
Flowers: Yellow, showy, petals 5, obovate, 7-9 mm. long, shortly apiculate, narrowed toward the base and pilose at the tips, calyx-tube conical, attenuated, densely hirsute-scabrous, calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute or shortly acuminate at the tips, usually persistent on the fruit, almost black, stamens filiform to linear, 20-25 in 1 series, style with 3 branches, flowers sessile and terminal.
Fruits: Capsule, conical or subcylindrical, 1.4 cm. long, brown, scabrous, with 3-5 valves, subsessile or attenuated into a short pedicel, the style persistent and withered on the fruit. Seeds 7-8, irregularly ovate to ovate-oblong, grayish-brown, striate, densel
Ecology: Unknown
Distribution: Texas only according to USDA Plants. Also reported in Mexico by Darlington.
Notes: Seeds are an important identifier for Mentzelia, gather if possible. Good indicators for this species are the sessile (or nearly so) capsule and the flower petals which are 7-9 mm long.
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 texana means of or from, or somehow relating to, Texas.
Synonyms: None
Editor: LCrumbacher 2012
