Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots

Family: Portulacaceae -- purslane

Common Name: spring beauty

Species Code: CLLA2

Origin: Native to areas which are vernally moist from shrub-steppe to mountain meadows in western North America from southern British Columbia to California and east to Saskatchewan and northern portions of New Mexico.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a globose corm, glabrous, stems ascending to erect, 6-20 cm tall.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: FAC-

Leaves: basal leaves petiolate from the corm, oblanceolate, 2-15 mm wide and 5-15 cm long; stem leaves 2, opposite, sessile, ovate to lanceolate, subtending the inflorescence.

Mature height: 2-6 inches

Flowers: borne in a loose raceme; sepals 2, 2-5 mm long; petals 5, connate at the base, 7-12 mm long, white, white lined with pink, or pink, rarely yellow.

Flower color: white, pink

Bloom: March, April, May

Bloom starts on: late March

Bloom ends on: late May

Fruit: capsule, ovoid, 4 mm long; seeds shiny, black, 2-2.5 mm long with an elaiosome.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a corm.
Corms do not produce offsets (Stewart & Wiens 1971).
In Utah populations, x=8. Diploids, tetraploids, triploids occur, as does aneuploidy (Stewart & Wiens 1971).
2n=16, 24, 32, many other numbers (Baldwin et al 2004).
2n=12, 16, 24, 32, 36, 44, 48, 52, 64, 74, ca. 90 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+).
Flowers are perfect.
Corms are edible and were eaten by native peoples.
Fruit is a capsule. Seeds are expelled explosively.
Seeds also possess an elaiosome which is attractive to ants. The ants carry the seeds to their nest where they eat the elaiosome and leave the seed in a good germination environment.
Flowers are protandrous, suggesting the plants are xenogamous (Stewart & Wiens 1971).
Foliage is grazed by elk, sheep, and deer, and the corms are eaten by rodents and bears (Craighead et al 1963). Plants are an inportant part of grizzly bear diet in Yellowstone Park (Mealy 1980).

Comments: C. lanceolata Pall. ex Pursh var. pacifica McNeill is a sensitive species in western Washington, but it does not extend east of the Cascade Mountains. Claytonia multiscapa (Claytonia lanceolata var. flava) is an Idaho state Priority 1 Species; possibly found in the Targhee forest, which is also far from the Palouse.

Sun requirement: full to partial sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: Probably needs cold moist stratification.

Seed yield: no information available

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: no information available

Planting duration: no information available

Seed insect problem: no information available

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: no information available

Seed comments: Seeds ripen indeterminately and are expelled explosively.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: upland

Propagation:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Corms do not produce offsets (Stewart & Wiens 1971).
Seed probably needs cold moist stratification.

Notes: Claytonia lanceolata should be a good garden plant. Seed propagation might be tricky. Blooms early in spring, then disappears until the next year. You might want to mark the position of the plants so you don’t hoe or dig them up late in the season. Common names include spring beauty, Indian potato (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed ADD DATE online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Davis, Ray J. 1966. The North American Perennial Species of Claytonia. Brittonia 18:285-303.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Mealey, Stephen P. 1980. The Natural Food Habits of Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone National Park, 1973-74. In: Bears: Their Biology and Management, Vol. 4, A Selection of Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Kalispell, Montana, USA, February 1977, pp. 281-292.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Stewart, Dennis, and Delbert Wiens. 1971. Chromosome Races in Claytonia lanceolata (Portulacaceae). American Journal of Botany 58: 41-47.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium