Abronia fragrans |
Abronia alpina |
|
---|---|---|
fragrant verbena, fragrant white sand-verbena, heart's-delight, snowball sand-verbena |
Ramshaw Meadows abronia, Ramshaw Meadows sand verbena |
|
Habit | Plants perennial. | Plants perennial. |
Stems | procumbent to semierect, slightly to moderately branched, elongate, sometimes reddish at base and nodes, glandular-pubescent, viscid. |
prostrate, well branched, forming small mats, elongate, viscid-pubescent. |
Leaves | petiole 0.5–8 cm; blade ovate to triangular or lanceolate, 3–12 × 1–8 cm, margins entire to subsinuate and slightly undulate, adaxial surface glandular-pubescent, abaxial surface more densely and longer pubescent, or sometimes villous. |
petiole 1–2 cm; blade orbiculate-oval, 0.4–1 × 0.3–0.5 cm, margins entire, plane, surfaces glandular-pubescent. |
Inflorescences | peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts linear-lanceolate to oval-ovate, 7–25 × 2–12 mm, scarious, glandular-puberulent to short villous; flowers 30–80. |
peduncle shorter than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 2–3 × 1–2 mm, papery, glandular-pubescent; flowers 1–5. |
Perianth | tube greenish to reddish purple, 10–25 mm, limb white, (2–)6–10 mm diam. |
tube whitish, 10–18 mm, limb white to lavender-pink, 6–8 mm diam. |
Fruits | winged or not, fusiform and appearing deeply grooved when wingless, when wings not distorted, fruit ± cordate in profile, tapered at base, with prominent beak in broad notch at apex, 5–12 × 2.5–7 mm, indurate, rugose veined or, if wings distorted, fruit ± rhombic in profile and tapered at both ends, or obdeltate and truncate at apex, with prominent beak; wings 4–5, thick, narrow, not dilated at apex, cavities extending throughout; peripheral fruits often distorted, S-shaped in lateral view. |
narrowly obovate in profile, 3–4 × 2–3 mm, thin, coriaceous, apex broadly conic; wings absent or 5-angled. |
Abronia fragrans |
Abronia alpina |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering summer. |
Habitat | Dry sandy soils, scrub and grasslands | Sandy soils, alpine meadows |
Elevation | 400-2000 m (1300-6600 ft) | 2600-3000 m (8500-9800 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua)
|
CA |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 63. | FNA vol. 4, p. 69. |
Parent taxa | Nyctaginaceae > Abronia | Nyctaginaceae > Abronia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Nuttall ex Hooker: Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 5: 261. (1853) | Brandegee: Bot. Gaz. 27: 456. (1899) |
Web links |