Taraxia breviflora (Short-Flowered Suncup) - photos and description
General: Low, stemless perennial with peduncles arising from a rosette of leaves.
Flowers: Flowers are bright yellow, single on stems, have four petals, 8 stamens, and a capitate stigma (stigma not four-lobed as in a similar plant Oenethera flava). We measured a flower at 8 mm diameter.
Leaves: Leaves basal, resemble those of a Dandelion. Leaves are oblanceolate, deeply incised, with appressed hairs on leaf bottoms, and very small hairs on top of leaves. The leaf highlighted in photo above was 4.5 cm long by 8 mm wide.
Height: Height not given in Budd's Flora, we measured scapes to 1 cm tall.
Habitat: Clay flats and shores of alkaline lakes in southwest Saskatchewan.
Abundance: This plant is very rare, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use as Oenothera breviflora, and, Camissonia breviflora.
When and where photographed: Above photos taken July 20th, shore of small alkaline lake in prairie, East Block of Grasslands National Park, about 350 km southeast of our home in Regina, SK.