Grass Leaf Springbeauty

Plants perennial, with stout, woody caudices; periderm beige to reddish when dried, 1-20 mm. Stems 5-40 cm. Leaves: basal leaves flaring at base into broad, membranous sheath, or sheath absent, blade linear to linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, 5-18 × 0.3-1.4 cm, apex acute; cauline leaves sessile or petiolate, blade linear to lanceolate, 1-4 × 0.5-1 cm, apex acute. Inflorescences multibracteate; bracts linear to subulate, 5-10 mm, apex acute. Flowers 10-18 mm diam.; sepals 6-12 mm, apex acute; petals white or pink to bright rose with yellow blotches at base, or white, 10-14 × 4-10 mm; ovules 6. Seeds 2-6, 2-3 mm diam., shiny and smooth to tuberculate; elaiosome 1-2 mm. 2n = 32.

Alaska; Eurasia (Russia).

Flowering Jun-Aug.

Marshy ground in moss and lichen tundra and alder and birch thickets, scree and talus of mountain slopes; 0-2000m.

Claytonia acutifolia subsp. graminifolia Hultén; C. acutifolia var. graminifolia (Hultén) B. Boivin; C. eschscholtzii Chamisso

Claytonia eschscholtzii Cham. Linnaea 6: 561. 1831
Perennial, with a fleshy taproot 5-15 mm. in diameter; stems several, about 1 dm. high, fleshy; basal leaves many, linear, attenuate, 5-10 cm. long, 1-5 mm. wide; stem-leaves lancelinear, rarely lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm. long; racemes 1-4-flowered, 3-5 cm. long, often witli a single lanceolate bract; sepals ovate, acute or obtusish, S-10 mm. long; petals white, veined, broadly obovate, broadly retuse, 15-17 mm. long; capsule 6 mm. long, ovoid.
Type locality: Not given, probably Kamtchatka. Distribution: Seward Peninsula; Alaska and eastern Siberia.

Claytonia acutifolia Pall.; Schultes, in R. & S. Syst. Veg 5:436. 1819.
Perennial, with a fleshy taproot 1 cm. thick or more; stems several, less than 1 dm. high, fleshy; basal leaves oblanceolate, acute or obtusish, with winged petioles, 4-S cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide; stem-leaves sessile, 1-2 cm. long, lance-linear; racemes 3-5-flowered 3-5 cm. long, often bracteate; sepals obovate, rounded at the apex, 8-10 mm. long; petals white, veined, broadly obovate, retuse or obcordate, about 15 mm. long; capsule 6 mm. long, ovoid; seeds shining, brownish-black, rounded-oval, 2.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide.
Type locality: Eastern Siberia.
Distribution: Bering Sea islands, Alaska; eastern Siberia.