Hosackia gracilis |
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seaside lotus |
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Habit | Plants usually low, 5–50 cm; stoloniferous or rhizomatous. |
Stems | 1–20+, prostrate or decumbent to ascending; slender, sometimes sparsely branched, distally usually with scattered or numerous closely appressed, flattened trichomes. |
Leaves | 1–6 cm; leaflets 3–7, elliptic or oblanceolate to obovate, 3.5–19 × 1.5–9 mm; margins eciliate or rarely sparsely ciliate; tips obtuse to emarginate; surfaces glabrous; petiolules 0.3–1 mm. |
Inflorescences | 2–5(6)-flowered, with flowers ± on one side; pedicels 0.5–1.5 mm. |
Peduncles | spreading to ascending or erect, 1.5–8 cm, often much > subtending leaf, elongating in fruit, often bearing a few scattered or sometimes copious closely appressed, flattened trichomes; bracts directly subtending umbel; leaf-like, 1–3(5)-foliolate. |
Flowers | 10–14(15) mm; calyces 4.5–6.5 mm, green, often reddish or with reddish highlights, glabrous; tubes obconic-cylindric, 2.5–4 mm; lobes subulate to narrowly triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, sparsely ciliolate or eciliolate; posterior pair of lobes and anterior 3 dissimilar in size; shape; and spacing; corollas broad; showy; claws conspicuously > calyx tubes; banners large and spreading, yellow to sometimes yellow-orange or red-orange; wings spreading widely, pale pink to lavender or deep red-violet; inner margins sub-approximate to commonly overlapping; keels proximally yellow; tips purple; ~1.5–2 mm < wings. |
Fruits | inclined to declined, linear, 20–40 × 1.5–2.5(3) mm, brown, glabrous. |
Seeds | usually 10–14, subreniform, nearly round in outline, 1–1.5 mm; olive to brown. |
Stipules | narrow, deltoid or ovate to lanceolate, 2–6 × 1–3 mm; ± symmetric, scarious; margins entire or occasionally toothed; tips acute or acuminate, sometimes bifid. |
2n | =14. |
Hosackia gracilis |
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Distribution | |
Discussion | Coastal bluffs and dunes, bogs, grasslands, grassy glades. Flowering Apr–Aug. 0–700 m. Est, Sisk, WV. CA, WA; north to British Columbia. Native. Hosackia gracilis is primarily a coastal species that is most similar to the inland species, H. pinnata. Plants from a few inland populations, especially in Lane County, seem to be somewhat intermediate and may be difficult to place based on corolla color patterns alone. This treatment emphasizes the nature of the peduncle bract in determining the taxonomic placement of questionable material of these two species. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 684 Gerald Carr |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Lotus formosissimus |
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