Serpentine Spring-Beauty

Wildflowers Found in Oregon

Serpentine Spring-Beauty, Blue Leaved Spring Beauty,
Pale Claytonia, Glaucous Springbeauty

Claytonia exigua ssp. glauca
Montia perfoliata ssp. glauca
Claytonia exigua is a species of wildflower in the purslane family known by the common names serpentine springbeauty and pale claytonia. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Idaho to California, where it grows in a number of habitat types, including plant communities on serpentine soils. This is a fleshy annual herb producing a patch of erect or leaning stems up to about 15 centimeters tall. The thick leaves are linear in shape and fingerlike near the base of the plant and crescent to disc-shaped farther up the stem. The plant is hairless and waxy and varies in color from green to pinkish, grayish, or brownish. The inflorescence holds several flowers on drooping pedicels which turn erect as the plant develops fruit. The flower has five lobed petals each a few millimeters long and in shades of pink, white, or pink-streaked white. The fruit is a capsule less than three millimeters long containing a few tiny seeds

On to Next Flower ⇨
Hi-Res Pic (212K)    Hi-Res Pic Closeup (166K)      Return to Thumb Page 79    Return to Wildflower Alpha List - Page 13