Oregon Hikers

Can't get a handle on this one: 90% of the plant is in the picture. No basal leaves when flowering. Inflorescence about 3mm. Plants about 3 - 4 inches, fused petals. On the Cedar Creek Trail, east side of the Mt. Hood National Forest, about 3,000 feet elevation, ridge top grassland.

It looks like the petals are fused into 2 parts?

Adam,

Two-part fused petals don't really make any sense, so maybe these haven't opened out yet - I investigated the mustard family, also Clarkias, but nothing so far. Even if you can hazard a wild guess, I can check my sources . . .

bobcat wrote:Adam,

Two-part fused petals don't really make any sense, so maybe these haven't opened out yet - I investigated the mustard family, also Clarkias, but nothing so far. Even if you can hazard a wild guess, I can check my sources . . .

those two and willowherbs covered my wild guesses, although it's such a classic ericaceae shaped bloom that also got me wondering... And I even looked at the polygonum for those fat-needle looking leaves.

A plant of much mystery...

Payslee

I agree with payslee that it looks very Erica-esque. Or a leggy mutant snowberry.

But I'm still stumped.

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this three-year-old thread, but... I think it's Montia/Claytonia linearis.

Thanks for dredging up this ancient post, Adam. You may be absolutely right and, morphologically, M. linearis seems the best fit. Kind of out-of-habitat, though, as I've only seen M. linearis in seeps and boggy ground and this was a dry ridge grassland. Perhaps a freak spawning of sorts . . .