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Stanleya
pinnata
(Prince’s Plume) Brassicaceae (Mustard Family) Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands, openings.
Spring. Growing to over five feet, putting out a long plume of yellow flowers, and swaying in the wind gets you attention. Place yourself in rocks at the side of the trail and the show is yours. Flowers are a deep lemon yellow and bloom from the bottom of the stalk upward over a period of many weeks, sometimes months. The dried stems persist for a year or two. Stanleya pinnata thrives on selenium rich soils and as a result crushed stems or leaves have an unpleasant odor. Frederick Pursh was the first to name this plant, but he placed it in the Cleome genus, giving it the name of Cleome pinnata in 1814 from a species collected by J. Bradbury (1768-1823) "in Upper Louisiana [Territory]". "Pinnata" is Latin for "feathered", referring to the feather-like flower raceme. From a specimen he collected near the Missouri River, Thomas Nuttall realized that the plant was not a Cleome and in his 1818 Genera of North American Plants he designated a new genus, Stanleya (honoring British naturalist Lord Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby). Nuttall, however, gave the species the name "pinnatifida". Nathaniel Britton (1859-1934) renamed the plant Stanleya pinnata in 1889. It has had several dozen other names since Pursh and Nuttall. (More biographical information.) |
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Stanleya
pinnata
(Prince’s Plume) Brassicaceae (Mustard Family) Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands, openings.
Spring. |
|
|
Stanleya
pinnata
(Prince’s Plume)
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family) Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands, openings.
Spring. |
|
|
Stanleya
pinnata
(Prince’s Plume)
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family) Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands, openings.
Spring. Flower stalks persist for a year or two and make Stanleya pinnata easy to identify. New spring highly dissected (pinnately lobed) basal leaves add to the ease of identification. Notice in the top photograph that the upper leaves are not pinnate. |
