Aphanes and Alchemilla in Monterey County, California
There's some taxonomic plasticity going on with Aphanes and Alchemilla. Genus Aphanes has been considered for inclusion in the broader genus Alchemilla (see notes under Aphanes in FNA). Perhaps just one taxon is relevant to Monterey County? But a second epithet, arvensis, has been used in iNat in Monterey County. Perhaps we need to flip some arvensis to occidentalis?
- POWO accepts Alchemilla occidentalis and Alchemilla arvensis, and notes that Aphanes arvensis is a synonym for Alchemilla arvensis
- iNat includes Alchemilla occidentalis and arvensis
- FNA includes 11 Alchemilla taxa and three Aphanes taxa.
- Jepson only includes Aphanes, with one taxon: Aphanes occidentalis
- CalFlora lists Aphanes occidentalis, with synonyms Alchemilla occidentalis, and Aphanes arvensis.
- Matthews & Mitchell only includes Aphanes occidentalis
- Styer only includes Aphanes occidentalis.
The FNA key describes arvensis as generally the larger plant in several aspects: flowers, leaves, stems, and hairs.
A small plant with leaves < 4mm and hairs always < 1mm would be occidentalis.
Thoughts anyone?
