Multiple-branched or manystem blazingstar Multiple-branched or manystem blazingstar

Touterea multicaulis Osterhout, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 30: 236. 1903

Plants perennial, bushlike, with subterranean caudices or sometimes rhizomes. Stems multiple, erect or decumbent, zigzag or straight; branches distal or along entire stem, distal longest or all ± equal, antrorse, straight to upcurved; hairy. Leaves: blade 20–49(–57) × 4.2–19 mm, widest intersinus distance 1.1–5.3 mm; proximal oblanceolate to elliptic, margins pinnate to pinnatisect, lobes 4–10, slightly antrorse, 0.7–7.6 mm; distal linear to lanceolate, base not clasping, margins entire or pinnate, lobes 0–10, slightly antrorse, 1.9–7.8 mm; abaxial surface with simple grappling-hook trichomes, adaxial surface with grappling-hook and needlelike trichomes. Bracts: margins entire. Flowers: petals golden yellow, 10.6–17.9 × 5.1–9 mm, apex obtuse, glabrous abaxially; stamens golden yellow, 5 outermost petaloid, filaments oblanceolate, slightly clawed, 6.5–10.5 × 2–4.5 mm, with anthers, second whorl with anthers; anthers twisted or straight after dehiscence, epidermis smooth; styles 6–11.5 mm. Capsules cup-shaped to cylindric, 6–13.6 × 3.4–6 mm, base tapering to rounded, not longitudinally ridged. Seeds: coat anticlinal cell walls straight, papillae 4–9 per cell. 2n = 22.

Flowering Jun–Aug. Sparsely vegetated steep slopes, drainage gullies, roadcuts; 2000–2500 m; Colo.

Mentzelia multicaulis is known to occur in Eagle, Grand, and Summit counties.