420 BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 



9. MERTENSIA Roth. 



Perennial herbs, with glabrous or minutely hispid or softly pubescent 

 alternate leaves and handsome blue, purple, or white flowers clustered in 

 paniculate racemes or in cymes. Calyx-lobes linear to lanceolate, usually 

 somewhat enlarged in fruit. Corolla tubular to f unnelf orm-campanulate ; the 

 limb 5-lobed; crests in throat small. Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube ; 

 anthers included, or at least not surpassing the limb. Ovary 4-divided ; style 

 slender. Nutlets attached laterally, but near the base only, to a slightly 

 elevated receptacle, erect, leathery, and wrinkled when mature. 



Leaves glabrous or nearly so, sometimes papillose or otherwise 



roughened. 



Corolla-tube equaling the calyx . . . . . 1. M. alpina. 



Corolla-tube about twice as long as the calyx. 



Tube glabrous within 2. M. folipsa. 



Tube with a villous ring within . . . . . . 3. M. coriacea. 



Corolla-tube more than twice as long as the calyx. 



Leaves crowded, usually glaucescent 4. M. ciliata. 



Leaves sparse, vivid green . . . . . . 5. M. cynoglossoides. 



Leaves strigillose above, sometimes papillose as well. 

 Calyx and corolla-tube subequal. 



Stamens included in corolla-tube . . . . . 6. M. brevistyla. 



Stamens exserted from the tube . . . . . 7. M. papillosa. 



Calyx shorter than the corolla-tube. 

 Low and tufted (8-15 cm', high). 



Leaves ovate or elliptic . . . . . . 8. M. ovata. 



Leaves oblong or oblance-spatulate 9. M. Tweedyi. 



Taller and loosely tufted (20 cm. or more high). 

 Leaves crowded on the stems and at the base. 



Smaller upward, bright green 10. M. viridis. 



Equably leafy, dark green 11. M. coronata. 



Leaves open on stem, few or wanting below. 



Glaucescent, rather thick . . . . . . 12. M. lanceolata. 



Bright green, thin and large , 13. M. pratensis. 



Leaves pubescent on both sides ....... 14. M. Bakeri. 



1. Mertensia alpina (Torr.) Don, Gen. Syst. 4: 372. 1838. Smooth and 

 somewhat glaucous, 10-15 cm. high: leaves broadly oblong to narrowly 

 lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, 3-5 cm. long; the lower numerous and on 

 slender petioles as long as or longer than the blade: flowers crowded, more open 

 in fruit: calyx-lobes scarcely equaling the tube of the blue corolla: the limb 

 of the corolla mostly shorter than the tube: filaments inserted either on the 

 margin of the throat or about the middle of the tube, very short, narrower 

 than the anther: style included. Open subalpjne plains and foothills. 



2. Mertensia foliosa A. Nels. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 26: 243. 1899. Gla- 

 brous, dark green, 2-3 dm. high; rootstock thick, shreddy, branched at summit; 

 stems numerous, 1 or more from each crown, striate, ascending or erect: 

 leaves thick, ample, scabrous on the margins; radical numerous, elliptic to 

 oblong, 4-7 cm. long, on slender petioles often twice as long; cauline crowded, 

 sessile, oblanceolate or (upwardly) lanceolate and acute: panicle crowded: 

 corolla 15 mm. long, the tube slightly exceeding the limb, about twice the 

 length of the lanceolate calyx-lobes, a 10-toothed ring inside at the base of 

 the glabrous tube: filaments as broad as the anthers, which are protruded 

 from the conspicuously crested throat. Moist slopes; western Wyoming. 



3. Mertensia coriacea A. Nels. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 29: 402. 1902. Gla- 

 brous, tufted, assurgent, 2-3 dm. high: leaves crowded, thick and coriaceous, 

 with some flat-topped papillae on the upper surface; radical oblong or 

 elliptic, 4-6 cm. long, on petioles mostly shorter than the blade; lower stem 

 leaves oblanceolate, passing into sessile ovate leaves upward: flower-clusters 

 terminal and in the axils of the upper leaves, crowded even in fruit: calyx- 

 lobes triangular-lanceolate, subciliate: corolla nearly tubular, limb and 

 throat exceeding the tube, the latter with a villous ring below the middle: 

 filaments spatulate, broader and shorter than the anthers: nutlets ovate, 

 coarsely rugose. (M. perplexa Rydb. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 31: 639. 1904.) 

 Alpine; southern Wyoming and southward. 



3o. Mertensia coriacea dilatata A. Nels. 1. c. Less leafy: inflorescence more 



