''Stillingia linearifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the euphorb family known as queen's-root. It is native to the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, and Northwestern Mexico, where it occurs in several types of dry and disturbed habitat in deserts, mountains, foothills, and

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

.Jepson
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Description

''Stillingia linearifolia'' is a perennial herb producing a clump of slender, branching, erect stems approaching 70 centimeters in height. The alternately arranged leaves are linear and narrow, reaching 4 centimeters in length but less than 2 millimeters in width. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is an erect spike of flowers a few centimeters long. The plant is

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

, and each spike has several male flowers at the tip and a few fruit-bearing female flowers below these. Neither type of flower has petals. The

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

of the female flower develops into a three-lobed greenish capsule 3 to 4 millimeters wide. There is a tiny black seed in each of the three chambers of the fruit.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Stillingia linearifolia''''Stillingia linearifolia'' — UC Photos gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7617245 linearifolia Taxa named by Sereno Watson Plants described in 1879 Flora of California Flora of Baja California Flora of Arizona Flora of Nevada Flora of New Mexico Flora of Sonora Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of the California desert regions Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Description

See also

References

External links