Nuttall's sandwort

Description

Minuartia nuttallii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Nuttall's sandwort and brittle sandwort. It is native to western North America from southwestern Canada to California and Nevada, where it grows in several types of habitat, including rocky and barren ridges, chaparral and woodlands, often on serpentine soils. Minuartia nuttallii is a rhizomatous perennial herb forming low mats of glandular, hairy herbage. The thin, rigid, sometimes needlelike leaves may be just over a centimeter long but are barely a millimeter wide. The small flowers have five white petals usually under a centimeter long and ribbed, pointed sepals. Minuartia is a genus of flowering plants commonly known as sandworts in the family Caryophyllaceae. Minuartias are small annual or perennial plants which grow in otherwise inhospitable conditions such as on rocky ledges and in stony soil. The genus is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere, mainly distributed in Europe, in the Mediterranean region, and north Africa, southwest Asia, and the Caucasus Mountains. Many Minuartia species were formerly classed in the genus Arenaria, and the obsolete genus Alsine. In 2014, the polyphyletic Minuartia sensu lato was recircumscribed, with many of the species transferred to other genera, including Cherleria, Eremogone, Facchinia, Mcneillia, Minuartiella, Mononeuria, Pseudocherleria, Rhodalsine, Sabulina, and Triplateia. Minuartia sensu stricto is characterized by the following features: leaves linear-setaceous; 5 acute sepals with 3, 5, or 9-veins; 5 white petals; 3 styles, forming 3-parted capsules. The genus was named for Juan Minuart (1693–1768), a Spanish botanist and pharmacist.