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Family: Loasaceae
whitestem blazingstar, more, small-flowered blazing star, whitestem stickleaf, white blazingstar
[Acrolasia albicaulis (Dougl. ex Hook.) Rydb., more, Acrolasia gracilis Rydb., Mentzelia albicaulis var. ctenophora (Rydb.) St. John, Mentzelia albicaulis var. gracilis J. Darl., Mentzelia albicaulis var. tenerrima (Rydb.) St. John, Mentzelia gracilis H.J. Thompson & Lewis non Urban & Gilg, Mentzelia mojavensis H.J. Thompson & Roberts, Trachyphytum gracile Nutt. ex B.D.Jacks.]
 Max Licher 
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Plant: Annual herb; STEMS to 45 cm tall
Leaves: to 15 cm long, sessile, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate; margins mostly lobed, often with teeth in the sinuses. BRACTS narrowly lanceolate to ovate, green, sometimes with faintly whitish bases, mostly not on ovary; margins entire or few-toothed
Inflorescence: cymose
Flowers: sessile; petals yellow, 2-5 mm long; staminodia 0; stamens ca. 15-30, all with linear filaments; style 2-4 mm long
Fruit: capsules clavate, often long-tapering to base; base not woody; body 8-28 mm long, straight or arched less than 180 degrees. SEEDS pendulous, not winged, those in upper half of capsule grain-like, several-faceted, irregular in cross-section, the angles sharp; testa cells with straight adjoining walls, the surface walls pointed-papillate
Misc: Upper elevations of warm deserts to chaparral and Great Basin Desert on a variety of soil types; 300-2250 m (1000-7400 ft); Feb-Jun
References: Charlotte Christy - Loasaceae - JANAS 30:96-111. ASU Specimens.
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