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July 31, 2007 : Mentzelia hispida

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Keywords: Loasaceae | Mentzelia hispida Willd. | San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Mentzelia hispida

Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel

David Tarrant continues to send photographs of Mexican plants that are poorly documented online, so here's another. Thank you again, David.

The common name in Mexico for this species is pega ropa or “sticks to clothing”. Blazingstar is the name often associated with the genus Mentzelia, so another common name would be hispid blazingstar (hispida: covered in short, bristly hairs).

This late-summer flowering perennial or subshrub is native to much of Mexico as well as Guatemala. Line-drawings of the flower and fruit can be seen on page 21 of Flora Del Bajío Y De Regiones Adyacentes: Loasaceae (PDF). The National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity in Mexico also has more photographs online: Mentzelia hispida.

A different blazingstar was previously featured on BPotD: Mentzelia lindleyi.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at July 31, 2007 6:51 AM

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Comments

Thanks David T.! I love the fruity colours of Mentzelia spp.--apricots & lemons--M. laevicaulis on grey gravel banks, near Hedley BC. Loasaceae is a fascinating family. I'll always remember Jim MacPhail ( UBCBG's 1st Alpine Garden curator) sending us (nursery staff) Loasaceae seed--the seedlings had stinging hairs--memorable to transplant! Pity, now in the interests of protecting us, T& M no longer sells a climbing annual Loasaceae, Caiophora ( sp. I forget), at least one of our kids never fell afoul. In fact, we have a picture of Owen at home crawling alongside the annual planting of that day. Thanks for the memories!

Posted by: tom wheeler at July 31, 2007 8:33 AM

Gorgeous. I'll have to look up some more of these.

Posted by: van at July 31, 2007 9:13 AM

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Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.