Polemoniaceae

Polemoniaceae – Phlox

In our area, members of the Polemoniaceae are small, perennial and annual herbs, well adapted to wet as well as arid North American environments. Leaves are variable but are usually narrow, although they can be alternate or opposite, simple or compound.[i] An important nectar species for native pollinators, Phlox have colorful and delicate, radially symmetric flowers.[ii] Five sepals may seem separate, but are actually fused, surrounding five connected petals that are formed into a distinctive corolla tubes. [iii] Stamens are attached to the corolla and are alternate with the petals. Superior ovaries mature into capsules that usually open up to have three valves for seed dispersal. Inflorescences are a rounded head like cluster, cymes, or solidary blooms. Some genera found in Oregon’s upland prairies are particularly sticky (Collomia spp.) or have a strong skunk-like odor (Navarretia spp.).[iv]  

Naverretia intertexta –  Needle-leaf Pincushion Plant

NAIN.jpg Species Code: NAIN

Habit: Erect annual forb, prickly leaves, flower head is a terminal spiked ball, and lightly hairy stems that can reach up to 28 cm tall, but usually shorter.

Leaves: Alternately arranged, compound, pinnate leaves divided into many needle-like lobes.[v]

Flowers: Corolla is generally white, but sometimes light lavender to blue. Five lightly hairy sepals are semi-united, five petals fused into a long tube with five ovate terminal lobes.[vi] Petals extend beyond inflorescence hairs and spikey bracts, distinguishing this plant from co-occurring Navarretia willamettensis.[vii] One style, two stigmas connected to a superior ovary. Five stamens exerted beyond the corolla. Many flowers condensed into a dense, spikey inflorescence head surrounded by a sphere of pointed leaf bracts.[viii]

Fruits: Produces oblong three-chambered capsules with six to nine dark brown seeds in each chamber.

Ecology: Facultative Wetland Species (FACW), a Hydrophyte that occurs mostly in sites that are wet in spring but dry by late summer and tolerates dryer areas.[ix]

Notes: A short, easily identifiable plant found in vernal pool areas. Flower heads are sea-urchin like and turn brown when seeds are ripe for collection. May be confused with Willamette navarretia (Navarretia willamettensis), whose corollas are not exerted beyond the calyx and stamens do not extend past the corolla lobes. Can also be confused with Skunkweed (N. squarrosa), which is glandular and has a strong skunk-like smell.

Gilia capitata ssp. capitata – Bluefield giliaGICA

Microsteris gracilis MIGR

Navarretia squarrosa –  SkunkweedNASQ

 

 

[i] Gilkey, H. Handbook of Northwestern Plants, Revised Edition. Oregon State University Press; Corvallis, OR. 2001. 328.

[ii] Elpel, T. J., Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, 2004. 125.

[iii] Pojar, J., Mackinnon, A., Editors Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Lone Pine Publishing, Vancouver, Canada. 2004. 233.

[iv] Gilkey, H. Handbook of Northwestern Plants, Revised Edition. Oregon State University Press; Corvallis, OR. 2001. 331.

[v] Gilkey, H. Handbook of Northwestern Plants, Revised Edition. Oregon State University Press; Corvallis, OR. 2001.

[vi] Gilkey, H. Handbook of Northwestern Plants, Revised Edition. Oregon State University Press; Corvallis, OR. 2001.

[vii] City of Eugene, Seed Collection Manual, Naverretia intertexta, 2009

[viii] Gilkey, H. Handbook of Northwestern Plants, Revised Edition. Oregon State University Press; Corvallis, OR. 2001.

[ix] USDA Plants Database: <https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=NAIN&gt;