LEAVES: Leaf lobes linear to linear-lanceolate.

NOTES: See also parent taxon. Sandy to rocky soils, meadows, coniferous forest, oak woodland; Mts. of Apache, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Mohave, Navajo, Pima, Navajo cos.; 1650-1600 m (5400-8500 ft); May-Sep. WA to CO, s to CA, NM, and nw Mex.

REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous or suffrutescent perennials, to 30 cm tall, stems many, erect, herbage glabrous to short pubescent.

Leaves: Opposite, clustered or sometimes appearing whorled, blades green with 5-9 linear to oblong lobes, these 5-10 mm long with spinulose tips, surfaces short pubescent.

Flowers: White, with 5 petal-like, rounded lobes, corollas salverform in outline, 8-15 mm long, the tube and lobes white, the throats yellow, calyxes narrowly campanulate, 7-10 mm long, with glabrous to pubescent surfaces, the lobes longer than the tube and with herbaceous membranes, stamens inserted on the throat, styles slightly exserted, flowers subsessile, borne in compact clusters of 2-5 in terminal, bracteate infloresences.

Fruits: Capsules. Seeds to 2 mm long.

Ecology: Found in openings in pine forests, from 1,500-7,500 ft (457-2286 m); flowering, June-November.

Distribution: Idaho and Washington to Arizona, California, and Mexico.

Notes: This species is low-growing, with bright green stems withopposite (or appearing whorled) clusters of leaves and rounded mounds of 5-lobed white flowers at stem tips. Jepson 2012 reports this species as L. nutallii subsp..nutallii, as does the USDA Plants website as of June 2012. This species appears in older versions of Kearney and Peebles as Linanthastrum nuttallii, and the synonyms listed here are taken from Kearney and Peebles 1969, who report it occurring in Apache, Navajo, Coconino, Yavapai, Greenlee, Gila, and Pima counties.

Synonyms: There is uncertainty about this species and its proper nomenclature.

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Linanthus comes from the Greek linon meaning "flax" and anthos meaning "flower", and nuttallii is named for the Englishman Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), a botanist, ornithologist, curator of the Harvard Botanic Gardens, and author in 1816 of Genera of North American Plants.