14. Chamaerhodos Bunge in C. F. von Ledebour, Fl. Altaica. 1: 429. 1829.
Little rose [Greek chamai, dwarf, and rhodon, rose, alluding to appearance of plants]
Joshua C. Springer, Bruce D. Parfitt†
Herbs, biennial or short-lived [long-lived] perennial, [0.3–]0.6–3 dm, hispid-hirsute, soft-hairy, and stipitate-glandular [eglandular]; taproots woody, scaly. Stems 1(–10), ˂reddish tinged [green]˃, simple or branched throughout, branches ascending or erect. Leaves basal winter-persistent, basal and cauline, rosulate, alternate, pinnately compound or simple and deeply pinnatifid; stipules absent; petiole present; blade obovate, 1.5–4 cm, herbaceous, 2–4-ternate, ˂cauline sessile or petioles to 2 mm˃, blade 1–2-pinnate or -pinnatifid, lobes linear-oblong, margins flat, entire, venation pinnate, ˂1 vein per lobe (lateral veins not seen)˃, surfaces hairy, stipitate- [or sessile] glandular. Inflorescences terminal or often axillary, 10–many-flowered, crowded [sparse], flat-topped panicles; ˂peduncles present˃; bracts present; bracteoles absent. Pedicels present or nearly absent [long-pedicellate]. Flowers 2–4[–4.5] mm diam.; epicalyx bractlets 5, reduced to bristles proximal to sepal bases; hypanthium campanulate, 1.5–2.5[–3.5] mm, exterior shiny-bristled, adaxially sparsely villous at rim; sepals 5, erect-ascending [recurved], ovate-lanceolate [triangular], ˂bristle-tipped˃; petals 5, white, obovate or cuneate-oblong, ˂apex emarginate˃; stamens 5(or 6), shorter than petals; torus absent; carpels 5–10(–20), glabrous, styles lateral; ovule 1. Fruits aggregated achenes, 1–6, ˂olivaceous to blackish [reddish to purplish at base]˃, ovoid-pyriform, 1.1–1.4[–1.6] mm, glabrous; hypanthium persistent; sepals persistent, erect-ascending (recurved); styles persistent. x = 7.
Species 7 (1 in the flora): North America, Asia.
