Plant Quiz Solved: Rock Sandwort (Minuartia michauxii)

Congratulations and thanks to Keith Board, affiliated with the fantastic Get Your Botany On! blog, for correctly identifying this species as Arenaria stricta, also known as Minuartia michauxii: the rock sandwort.  This late spring/early summer flowering plant is rare in Ohio and listed as a potentially-threatened species with scattered populations in the southern counties and counties along Lake Erie.  In our state it grows almost exclusively on dry, rocky limestone (calcareous) situations like cliffs, bluffs, rock faces, prairies, and quarries.  Its charming and delicate white flowers bloom in the latter part of May and into June. This particular patch was photographed on a dolomite glade bluff in Adams county where the plant is locally common.

Thanks to those to played along on here and on Facebook!  Keep your eye out for another plant quiz in the future.

Minuartia michauxii in flower

Time for another plant quiz!  Take a gander at the accompanying photograph of the plant in question and leave your answers/responses in the comment section below.  Note: the plant in question is not the oak seedling! Thanks to all those who decide to play along and best of luck!

Do you recognize this native Ohio plant?