Fendler's sandwort

Arenaria fendleri A. Gray, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 13. 1849; A. fendleri subsp. brevifolia Maguire; A. fendleri var. brevifolia (Maguire) Maguire; A. fendleri var. diffusa Porter & Coulter; A. fendleri var. porteri Rydberg; A. fendleri var. tweedyi (Rydberg) Maguire; A. tweedyi Rydberg

Plants ± cespitose, bluish green, not glaucous, with woody base. Stems erect, (2-)10-30(-40) cm, stipitate-glandular. Leaves: basal leaves persistent; cauline leaves in (4-)5+ pairs, reduced or not; basal blades ascending or recurved, filiform, 1-10(-11) cm × 0.2-0.4 mm, flexuous, herbaceous, apex apiculate to spinose, glabrous to puberulent, not glaucous. Inflorescences (1-)3-35-flowered, ± open cymes. Pedicels 3-25 mm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals weakly to prominently 1-3-veined, linear-lanceolate, 4-7.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, margins broad, apex acuminate, moderately to densely stipitate-glandular on herbaceous portion; petals white, oblong-elliptic to spatulate, 4-8 mm, 0.9-1.3 times as long as sepals, apex entire to somewhat erose; nectaries as lateral and abaxial rounding of base of filaments opposite sepals, 0.2 × 0.4 mm. Capsules 5-7 mm, glabrous. Seeds black, ovoid to pyriform with hilar notch, 1.5-1.9 mm, tuberculate; tubercles rounded, elongate to rounded-conic. 2n = 44.

Flowering spring-late summer. Sagebrush plains, pine forests, and mountain slopes to alpine zones; 1200-4300 m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., Tex., Utah, Wyo.

We agree with M. F. Baad (1969) in not formally recognizing varieties within Eremogone fendleri. B. Maguire (1947, 1951) recognized five varieties, defined chiefly on leaf and sepal characteristics. While some specimens can be “matched” to varieties, many appear intermediate between them, forming a continuum of variation.

B. Maguire (1947) noted that Eremogone fendleri is “probably to be found in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico”; we have not seen any collections from that area.