Macoun’s meadowfoam (Limnanthes macounii) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 3
Species Information
Name and classification
Scientific name:
Limnanthes macounii Trelease - Memoirs of theBoston Society of Natural History, 4: 85. 1887.
Type specimen(s):
"In ditches at Victoria," Vancouver Island; May 7, 1875, John Macoun, coll.no. 2877 (CAN, Canadian Museum of Nature).
Pertinent synonyms:
Floerkea macounii (Trelease) Trelease in A. Gray - Synoptical Flora of North America, 1: 363. 1897.
Common name:
Macoun's meadowfoam
Family name:
Limnanthaceae (Meadowfoam family)
Major plant group:
Dicot flowering plants
A monograph of the genus Limnanthes was published by Mason (1952) and was used in documenting some of the early collections of the species in the Victoria area.
Description
Small annual plant, 2-5(-15) cm tall, small plants erect, taller ones with the hairless stems reclining with upturned tips and unbranched or with one or more branches; leaves hairless, both basal and arising from the stems, 1 - 7 cm long, pinnate with 3-13 toothed or lobed segments; flowers single, with parts in 4s (occasionally in 5s), funnelform or rotate, about 7-10 mm in diameter, with anthers maturing before the pistils are receptive; sepals 4, ovate, acute, 3-4 mm long, green; petals 4, obovate, slightly notched at the rounded apex, 4-5 mm long, white, with 2 rows of hairs at the base; stamens 8, 2.5-3 mm long; pistil 1, 4-lobed, with carpels almost separate, but with a common style, and 4 elongated stigmas; fruit of (1-) 3-4 nutlets, 3 mm long, obconical, tuberculate on the tip, yellow-green to brown (Figure 1, 2).
Figure 1. Macoun’s meadowfoam; habit, flowers and nutlet (illustration by O. Ceska).
Figure 2. Dense population of Macoun’s meadowfoam in Victoria.
When in flower, the species can be identified easily by its pinnate leaves and stems with single flowers with four sepals and petals. In fruit, the conspicuous, relatively large tuberculate nutlets, serve as good diagnostic features.
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