Addisonia 13 



(Plate 127) 



MENTZELIA FLORIDANA 

 Poor-man's Patches 



Native of Florida and the Bahamas 



Family Loasaceab Loasa Family 



Mentzeliafloridana Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 1: 532. 1840, 



Stems and branches reclining and clambering on other herbs or 

 on shrubs, diffuse, repeatedly dichotomous, finely fluted at maturity, 

 minutely glochidiate-hispid. The leaves are alternate, often quite 

 irregularly placed; the blades are ovate or deltoid and coarsely 

 toothed or lobed and hastate, three fourths of an inch to three and 

 a half inches long. They are bright green, often shining and with 

 impressed veins above, paler, dull, and with prominent veins be- 

 neath. The leaf margins are very uneven, with acute or obtuse 

 teeth or lobes; the surfaces are densely clothed when young with 

 scabrous hairs above and more numerous glochidiate and scabrous 

 hairs beneath, less hairy when older. The bases of the leaf-blades 

 are broadly cuneate to subcordate. The petioles are much shorter 

 than the blades; even in the case of the lower leaves they are rarely 

 one half as long as the blades. The flowers, borne in or near the axils 

 of leaves or branches, open in the forenoon. The buds are conic- 

 ovoid and acute. The sepals are lanceolate, one quarter to three 

 eighths of an inch long, concave, involute and thus subulate at mat- 

 urity, persistent and turning brown. The petals are bright yellow, 

 and sometimes salmon-colored without, broadly cuneate to orbicu- 

 lar-cuneate, three eighths to five eighths of an inch long, usually 

 abruptly pointed at the apex, concave, faintly striate. The stamens 

 are numerous, erect or nearly so, in groups; the filaments are fili- 

 form, yellow; the anthers are yellow, often pale. The capsules are 

 nodding or divergent, with obconic bodies which are harshly and 

 usually densely glochidiate-hispid, except at the slightly depressed 

 apex, and narrowed into a short stipe-Uke base. 



The genus Mentzelia, named in honor of Christian Mentzel (1622 

 -1701), a European botanist, was founded on a plant collected in 

 the West Indies, perhaps in the seventeenth century; this was the 

 only known member of the genus for many years. 



The plant here illustrated was first found in eastern Florida in 

 the early part of the last century by William Baldwin. It was 

 discovered in the northeastern corner of the state, and was later 

 found at the southwestern extremity on Key West. It is common 

 on the Atlantic side, but less common on the Gulf Coast and evi- 

 dently does not extend as far north there. After the Florida spe- 

 cies was named and described, additional species, as well as several 



