Spiny Fameflower

Plants to 3 dm; roots elongate, woody. Stems erect to ascending, simple or branching, bearing ± persistent, straight, spinelike, 5 mm or more, proximal portions of midribs of old leaves, suffrutescent. Leaves petiolate; blade subterete, to 2.5 cm, base attenuate. Inflorescences cymose, overtopping leaves; peduncle scapelike, to 20 cm. Flowers: sepals deciduous, orbiculate to ovate, to 3 mm; petals pale to bright rose or purplish red, elliptic to obovate, to 10 mm; stamens 20-30; stigma 1, subcapitate. Capsules ovoid-globose, 5 mm. Seeds without arcuate ridges, 1.2 mm.

Oreg., Wash.

Flowering May-Jul.

Cliffs, ledges, and outcrops in basaltic soils; 700-1100m.

Talinum spinescens Torrey in C. Wilkes et al., U.S. Expl. Exped. 17: 250. 1874

Talinum spinescens Torr. U. S. Expl. Exp. 17: 250. 1874
Claytonia spinescens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 57. 1891.
An erect herb, up to 3 dm. tall, with a somewhat woody caudex, its branches armed with the persistent, indurated, spine-like midribs of the leaves; leaf-blades subterete, linear, 1-3 cm. long, 1-2 mm. thick, obtuse at the apex, tapering at the base into the petiole; inflorescence a few-flowered cyme, bracted at the forks; peduncle slender, 7-19 cm. long; pedicels slender; sepals orbicular-ovate to orbicular, 2.5-4 mm. long, 2.5-4 mm. broad; petals oval or obovate, 6-S mm. long, "bright-purple"; stamens 20-30; style filiform, nearly as long as the petals; stigma subcapitate; capsule ovoid-globose, about 5 mm. long, 4 mm. in diameter; seeds smooth or ridged down the back, 1 mm. wide.
Type locality: Bare rocks between Fort Okanagan and Grand Coulie, on the upper Columbia River.
Distribution: Washington; British Columbia (?).