Veronica besseya
| Veronica besseya | |
|---|---|
 | |
| South side of Pennsylvania Mountain, San Isabel National Forest | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Embryophytes |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Plantaginaceae |
| Genus: | Veronica |
| Species: | V. besseya |
| Binomial name | |
| Veronica besseya M.M.Mart.Ort. & Albach | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
Veronica besseya is a plant species in the veronica family that is also known by the scientific names Synthyris alpina and Besseya alpina as well as alpine kittentails.
Description
[edit]Alpine kittentails are subscapose herbs, a plant with a flowering stem that is almost leafless, that are perennials. Its unbranched flowering stems grow 5 to 20 centimeters (2–8 in) tall. The basal leaves are 2.5 to 6 cm (1–2.5 in) long and 1 to 4 cm wide on leaf stalks 3 to 10 cm (1–4 in) long.[3]
The blue, bluish purple, lavender, or reddish flowers usually have four petals, but might have three or five. More than 100 can be densely packed on the inflorescence.[4]
Taxonomy
[edit]In 1862 the botanist Asa Gray scientifically described a species which he named Synthyris alpina.[2] The specimens described by Gray were collected in 1861 near the headwaters of South Clear Creek and east of Middle Park in Colorado by Charles Christopher Parry.[3] The botanist Edward Lee Greene published a description of the species in 1894 where he moved it to the genus Wulfenia, but this did not become accepted.[2] It was moved to a new genus named Besseya as Besseya alpina in 1903 by Per Axel Rydberg.[2] However, in 2004 María Montserrat Martínez Ortega and Dirk C. Albach merged both Synthyris and Besseya into Veronica on the basis that the difference of having a rosette made them insufficiently different from other species in the larger genus, renaming it Veronica besseya.[5]
Veronica besseya is listed as the accepted name in Plants of the World Online,[2] but the name Synthyris alpina is used by World Plants,[6] the Flora of North America,[4] and NatureServe,[1] while the Natural Resources Conservation Service uses Rydberg's Besseya alpina.[7]
Names
[edit]Rydberg named the genus Besseya for his teacher at the University of Nebraska, Charles Edwin Bessey.[8] When the species was moved to Veronica Martínez Ortega and Albach needed to choose a new name for the species, the name Veronica alpina having already been used for another species,[9] and chose Veronica besseya as B. alpina was the type for the genus.[10] It is know variously by the common names alpine kittentails,[3] alpine kittentail,[4] alpine coral-drops,[1] alpine coraldrops,[11] or alpine besseya.[7]
Range and habitat
[edit]Alpine kittentails are native to the Rocky Mountains of southern Wyoming, Colorado, and Northern New Mexico. Additionally, an isolated population grows in the LaSal Mountains in southeastern Utah.[3] They range from as low as 2,800 meters (9,200 ft) to as high as 4,300 meters (14,100 ft).[4] Its habitat is moist rocky meadows, boulder fields, and the scree as the base of cliffs.[3]
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- 1 2 3 NatureServe 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 POWO 2026b.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Cronquist et al. 1984, p. 470.
- 1 2 3 4 Hufford 2020.
- ↑ Albach et al. 2004, pp. 440–441.
- ↑ Hassler 2026.
- 1 2 NRCS 2026.
- ↑ Rydberg 1903, pp. 279–280.
- ↑ POWO 2026a.
- ↑ Albach et al. 2004, p. 440.
- ↑ Johnson 1999, p. 113.
Sources
[edit]Books
[edit]- Cronquist, Arthur; Holmgren, Arthur H.; Holmgren, Noel H.; Reveal, James L.; Holmgren, Patricia K. (1984). Intermountain Flora : Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A.. Vol. Four. Subclass Asteridae (except Asteraceae). New York: Published for the New York Botanical Garden by Hafner Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-89327-248-7. OCLC 320442. Retrieved 20 April 2026.
- Johnson, Timothy (1999). CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-1187-1. OCLC 39765430.
Journal articles
[edit]- Albach, Dirk C.; Martínez-Ortega, M. Montserrat; Fischer, Manfred A.; Chase, Mark W. (2004). "A New Classification of the Tribe Veroniceae: Problems and a Possible Solution". Taxon. 53 (2): 429–452. doi:10.2307/4135620. JSTOR 4135620. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
- Rydberg, P. A. (May 1903). "Some Generic Segregations". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 30 (5): 271–281. doi:10.2307/2478553. JSTOR 2478553. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
Web sources
[edit]- Hassler, Michael (30 March 2026). "Synthyris alpina in the Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora. Version 26.03". World Plants. Retrieved 20 April 2026.
- Hufford, Larry D. (5 November 2020) [In print 2019]. "Synthyris alpina". Flora of North America. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-19-086851-2. OCLC 1101573420. Retrieved 20 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link) - NatureServe (3 April 2026). "Synthyris alpina". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
- NRCS (2026). "Besseya alpina". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 20 April 2026.
- POWO (2026a). "Veronica alpina L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
- POWO (2026b). "Veronica besseya M.M.Mart.Ort. & Albach". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
External links
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