Page authors: Don Knoke, David Giblin
Montia fontana
water blinks, water chickweed, annual water miner's lettuce
Specimens
Photos

Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to Idaho, eastward across northern Canada to eastern North America.

Habitat: Wet places, including meadows, fields, lawns, and vernally moist sites, sometimes aquatic and floating, low to moderate elevations.

Flowers: March-June

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Annual, Biennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, flies

Description:
General:

Delicate annual with slender, weak, decumbent, branching stems 3-20 cm. long, tending to root at the nodes.

Leaves:

Leaves opposite, usually several pairs, rhombic-obovate to oblanceolate, 4-15 mm. long and 1-7 mm. wide, narrowed to short petioles.

Flowers:

Flowers 3-7 in lax racemes, the pedicels recurved, slender, mostly 3-10 mm. long; sepals 2, 1 mm. long; corolla white, about equal to the sepals, the tube about equal to the 5 lobes, which are often unequal in length and width; stamens 3, attached to the corolla tube; style 1, stigmas 3, elongate

Fruits:

Capsule obovoid, 1.5 mm. long.

Accepted Name:
Montia fontana L.
Publication: Sp. Pl. 1: 87. 1753.

Synonyms & Misapplications:
Claytonia hallii A. Gray
Montia clara Ö. Nilsson
Montia fontana L. ssp. fontana [KZ99]
Montia fontana L. var. lamprosperma (Cham.) Fenzl [HC]
Montia fontana L. var. tenerrima (A. Gray) Fernald & Wiegand [HC]
Montia funstonii Rydb.
Montia hallii (A. Gray) Greene
Montia minor C.C. Gmel.
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Montia fontana in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database.

WA Flora Checklist: Montia fontana checklist entry.

OregonFlora: Montia fontana information.

E-Flora BC: Montia fontana atlas page.

CalPhotos: Montia fontana photos.

USDA Plants: Montia fontana information.

30 photographs:
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