Heartleaf Springbeauty

Plants perennial, rhizomatous; rhizomes 4-8 mm diam.; periderm absent. Stems 5-30 cm. Leaves: basal leaves petiolate, blade ovate to deltate or cordate, 2-7 × 1-5 cm; cauline leaves sessile, blade ovate, 1-4 cm. Inflorescences ebracteate. Flowers 10-15 mm diam.; sepals 4-8 mm; petals white, 8-12 mm; ovules 6. Seeds (1-)6, 1-2 mm diam., shiny and smooth; elaiosome 1 mm or less. 2n = 10, 20.

B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash.

Flowering May-Sep.

Meadows, seeps; 500-2000m.

Claytonia sibirica Linnaeus var. cordifolia (S. Watson) R. J. Davis; Montia cordifolia (S. Watson) Pax & K. Hoffmann

Limnia cordifolia S. Wats.) Rydberg
Claylonia cordifolia S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 565. 1882.
Claylonia asarifolia A. Gray. Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 280. 1887. Not C. asari folia Bong. 1832.
Montia asarifolia Howell. Erythea 1: 39. in part. 1893.
Limnia asarifolia Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 33: 138. in part. 1906.
Perennial, with a horizontal rootstcck; stem 1-3 dm. high, glabrous; basal leaves petioled, the petioles 2-15 cm. long, the blades rounded-reniform, suborbicular, or cordate, 2-5 cm. long and fully as broad, glabrous, thin, faintly veined; stem-leaves sessile, rounded-ovate or suborbicular, 1.5-3 cm. long, obtuse or acute; raceme naked, simple, 10-15 cm. long; flowers 4—8; pedicels 2-3 cm. long; sepals round-reniform, 4 mm. long; petals fully 1 cm. long, obcordate, white; seeds black, nearly orbicular, 2 mm. long.
Type LOCALITY: Pend d'Oreille River, northern Idaho.
Distribution: Montana to northern Utah. Oregon, and British Columbia.

Claytonia cordifolia is a species of wildflower in the family Montiaceae known by the common name heartleaf springbeauty. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Utah, where it grows in shallow lakes and in streams or springs and wetlands including bogs and fens according to Miller and Chambers (2006). It is a perennial herb growing from a long, budding rhizome and producing an erect stem up to 40 centimeters tall. The basal leaves have oval blades up to 9 centimeters long with heart-shaped bases where they attach to their long petioles. There is also a pair of oval-shaped leaves at a midpoint on the stem. The stalked inflorescence bears up to 12 small flowers with five white petals each about a centimeter long.