Lewisia leeana (orth. var. L. leana) is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common name quill-leaf lewisia. It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Ranges. This is a perennial herb growing from narrow, woody taproot connected to one or more caudices. It produces a basal rosette of many fleshy flat to cylindrical blunt-tipped leaves up to 4 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears many flowers on erect, branching stems up to about 24 centimeters tall. Each flower has 5 to 8 white, pink, or purplish petals each about half a centimeter long.

Lewisia leeana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Montiaceae
Genus: Lewisia
Species:
L. leeana
Binomial name
Lewisia leeana
(Porter) B.L.Rob.

This plant is named for Lambert Wilmer Lee, who collected it in the Siskiyou Mountains just south of the Oregon border in 1876.[1] It commonly hybridizes with Lewisia cotyledon in the wild, producing Lewisia x whiteae.[2]

References

edit
edit