Hutchinsia procumbens (L.) Desv. 

 Hutchinsia 



A. DESCRIPTION 



1. General description: This is a small inconspicuous annual 

 in the Brassicaceae with the family's typical floral formula 

 of 4 sepals, 4 white petals, 6 stamens, and 1 pistil. The 

 fruit is a broad silicle. 



2. Technical species description (modified from Hitchcock and 

 Cronquist 1973) : 



Plants glabrous annuals, 3-15 cm. high; leaves mostly on 

 lower part of stem, from obovate and entire with petiole 

 equal to the blade to lyrate-pinnatif id, reduced upward; 

 racemes ebracteate; pedicels slender, spreading, 3-10 mm; 

 sepals scarcely 1 mm, about equal to the white, cuneate- 

 obovate petals; silicles sessile, strongly obcompressed, 

 elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 3-3.5 mm; style about 0.2 

 mm long. 



3. Diagnostic characters: broad siliques which are strongly 

 flattened at right angles to the septum, very short styles, 

 non-clasping stem leaves (Dorn 1992). 



B. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: "B.C. to California, east to Wyoming and 

 Colorado, also in Labrador and Newfoundland; Old World. Also 

 occurs in Montana (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1973)." 



2. Montana Distribution: Tendoy Mountains and Ovando Valley. 



3. Occurrences in the study area: Recently known from one 

 location on slopes above upper Big Sheep Creek, discovered by 

 Lesica in 1986. There is also an old collection from Armstedt 

 (confluence of Red Rock River and Medicine Lodge Creek, now 

 submerged) . 



C. HABITAT 



The primary habitat of this species is the edges of salt 

 marshes along the coast. It occurs inland around saline or 

 alkaline ponds and lakes. The Tendoys occurrence is somewhat 

 anomalous. Plants were growing beneath sagebrush on steep 

 limestone talus. See the habitat description for Agastache 

 cusickii (also for Mimulus suksdorfii and Phacelia incana) in 

 this report. 



D. POPULATION BIOLOGY 



The Big Sheep Creek Canyon population is probably small. It 

 was not seen in surveys of the same site conducted in 1989 or 

 1993. The plants are very ephemeral; plants near Ovando were 

 completely dried up by mid-July. 



