Veronica besseya

Veronica besseya
South side of Pennsylvania Mountain, San Isabel National Forest
Apparently Secure
Apparently Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Veronica
Species:
V. besseya
Binomial name
Veronica besseya
M.M.Mart.Ort. & Albach
Synonyms
  • Besseya alpina (A.Gray) Rydb.
  • Synthyris alpina A.Gray
  • Wulfenia alpina (A.Gray) Greene

Veronica besseya is a plant species in the veronica family that is also known by the scientific names Synthyris alpina and Besseya alpina as well as alpine kittentails.

Description

Alpine kittentails are subscapose herbs, a plant with a flowering stem that is almost leafless, that are perennials. Its unbranched flowering stems grow 5 to 20 centimeters (2–8 in) tall. The basal leaves are 2.5 to 6 cm (1–2.5 in) long and 1 to 4 cm wide on leaf stalks 3 to 10 cm (1–4 in) long.

The blue, bluish purple, lavender, or reddish flowers usually have four petals, but might have three or five. More than 100 can be densely packed on the inflorescence.

Taxonomy

In 1862 the botanist Asa Gray scientifically described a species which he named Synthyris alpina. The specimens described by Gray were collected in 1861 near the headwaters of South Clear Creek and east of Middle Park in Colorado by Charles Christopher Parry. The botanist Edward Lee Greene published a description of the species in 1894 where he moved it to the genus Wulfenia, but this did not become accepted. It was moved to a new genus named Besseya as Besseya alpina in 1903 by Per Axel Rydberg. However, in 2004 María Montserrat Martínez Ortega and Dirk C. Albach merged both Synthyris and Besseya into Veronica on the basis that the difference of having a rosette made them insufficiently different from other species in the larger genus, renaming it Veronica besseya.

Veronica besseya is listed as the accepted name in Plants of the World Online, but the name Synthyris alpina is used by World Plants, the Flora of North America, and NatureServe, while the Natural Resources Conservation Service uses Rydberg's Besseya alpina.

Names

Rydberg named the genus Besseya for his teacher at the University of Nebraska, Charles Edwin Bessey. When the species was moved to Veronica Martínez Ortega and Albach needed to choose a new name for the species, the name Veronica alpina having already been used for another species, and chose Veronica besseya as B. alpina was the type for the genus. It is known variously by the common names alpine kittentails, alpine kittentail, alpine coral-drops, alpine coraldrops, or alpine besseya.

Range and habitat

Alpine kittentails are native to the Rocky Mountains of southern Wyoming, Colorado, and Northern New Mexico. Additionally, an isolated population grows in the LaSal Mountains in southeastern Utah. They range from as low as 2,800 meters (9,200 ft) to as high as 4,300 meters (14,100 ft). Its habitat is moist rocky meadows, boulder fields, and the scree as the base of cliffs.

References

Citations

Sources

Books

  • Cronquist, Arthur; Holmgren, Arthur H.; Holmgren, Noel H.; Reveal, James L.; Holmgren, Patricia K. (1984). Intermountain Flora : Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A.. Vol. Four. Subclass Asteridae (except Asteraceae). New York: Published for the New York Botanical Garden by Hafner Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-89327-248-7. OCLC 320442. Retrieved 20 April 2026.
  • Johnson, Timothy (1999). CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-1187-1. OCLC 39765430.

Journal articles

Web sources