Heuchera cylindrica

This species is broadly distributed in the northern Rockies, west to the drier parts of the Cascades, and south to the northern Sierra Nevada in northern California. It is very distinctive for its elongate, somewhat narrow leaves. It generally has no petals, and the large flowers, yellow pollen, and well developed nectar disk further serve to distinguish it from all other species that have condensed inflorescences.

In the past, several species and varieties have been recognized. I list some of them below with the proviso that they have not always been recognized in the recent floras (though they were in the last monograph on this group from the late 1950s).

Heuchera cylindrica "var. cylindrica":

This variety, as it was recognized by Rosendahl et al., occurs most commonly in Washington, Oregon, and southern Idaho. This population comes from northeastern Washington, perhaps ten miles from the type locality; the photos were taken in the wild.

H. cylindrica "var. glabella":

This is the most common variety. It ranges from Montana to the drier parts of eastern Washington. It does not appear to intergrade with "H. saxicola" but there are intermediate populations with H. cylindrica var. cylindrica. These photos are from cultivated material from northwestern Montana.

"H. saxicola" (= H. cylindrica sensu lato):

This taxon occurs in southern Montana (northwards, replaced by H. cylindrica var. glabella suddenly in the area of Helena) and barely into adjacent Wyoming towards Yellowstone. It is disjunct from the other villous-petioled varieties, but parapatric with H. cylindrica var. glabella (i.e., the range slightly overlaps). Most leaf bases are truncate or cuneate, and the whole plant is strongly viscid in good weather (to the point of being difficult to handle when pressing specimens). The bracts subtending the cymules are also longer than in the other putative taxa, nearly equalling the flowers in length. All of these photographs are from populations south of Bozeman; the last is a wild habit photo, but the others are from cultivation.