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fragrant verbena, fragrant white sand-verbena, heart's-delight, snowball sand-verbena

coastal sand-verbena, yellow 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, often buried in sand, usually much branched, forming large mats, succulent, densely glandular-pubescent to glabrous.

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.

1–6 cm;

blade deltate-ovate to reniform, 2.2–4.8 × 2.7–5.2 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes slightly repand and undulate, surfaces glabrous or viscid-puberulent.

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 longer than subtending petiole;

bracts ovate, 5–9 × 3–5 mm, thin, yellowish green, glandular-pubescent;

flowers 17–35.

Perianth

tube greenish to reddish purple, 10–25 mm, limb white, (2–)6–10 mm diam.

tube yellowish green, 6.5–18 mm, limb yellow, 8–13 mm diam., lobes slightly to moderately reflexed.

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.

winged, ± rhombic in profile, attenuate at both ends, 8–15 × 6–14 mm, scarious;

wings 4–5, thin walled, small, cavities extending into wing.

Abronia fragrans

Abronia latifolia

Phenology Flowering spring–fall. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Dry sandy soils, scrub and grasslands Sandy soils, coastal scrub, lees of dunes adjacent to strand
Elevation 400-2000 m (1300-6600 ft) 0-50 m (0-200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

S. S. Tillett (1967) considered plants of Abronia umbellata var. minor (Standley) Munz to be introgressants between A. latifolia and A. umbellata.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 4, p. 63. FNA vol. 4, p. 68.
Parent taxa Nyctaginaceae > Abronia Nyctaginaceae > Abronia
Sibling taxa
A. alpina, A. ameliae, A. ammophila, A. angustifolia, A. argillosa, A. bigelovii, A. bolackii, A. carletonii, A. elliptica, A. latifolia, A. macrocarpa, A. maritima, A. mellifera, A. nana, A. pogonantha, A. turbinata, A. umbellata, A. villosa
A. alpina, A. ameliae, A. ammophila, A. angustifolia, A. argillosa, A. bigelovii, A. bolackii, A. carletonii, A. elliptica, A. fragrans, A. macrocarpa, A. maritima, A. mellifera, A. nana, A. pogonantha, A. turbinata, A. umbellata, A. villosa
Name authority Nuttall ex Hooker: Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 5: 261. (1853) Eschscholtz: Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg Hist. Acad. 10: 281. (1826)
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