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Abronia mellifera

honey scented sand-verbena, white sand-verbena

clay sand-verbena

Habit Plants perennial. Plants perennial.
Stems

decumbent to ascending, much branched, elongate, glabrous or glandular-pubescent.

arising from branched caudices, ascending to erect, few branched, elongate, glabrous.

Leaves

petiole 1–6 cm;

blade ovate to lance-elliptic, 1–6 × 0.5–4 cm, margins entire to sinuate and ± undulate, surfaces glabrous or glandular-pubescent.

petiole 1–3 cm;

blade elliptic to obovate, 1.5–3.5 × 0.3–1.5 cm, margins entire to ± repand and undulate, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

peduncle longer than subtending petiole;

bracts lanceolate to obovate, 5–12 × 1–5 mm, papery, glabrate to glandular-pubescent;

flowers 25–60.

peduncle longer than subtending petiole;

bracts ovate to orbiculate, 7–15 × 6–15 mm, scarious, glandular-puberulent;

flowers 15–20.

Perianth

tube pale rose proximally to greenish distally, 15–25 mm, limb white, 7–12 mm diam.

tube white to greenish, 10–15 mm, limb white, 5–7 mm diam.

Fruits

winged, broadly obdeltate or cordate in profile, 6–10 × 4–10 mm, thin, usually coriaceous, rarely indurate, base attenuate, apex prominently beaked;

wings (2–)5 (when 2, folded to form single deep groove), without dilations, broad, thin, without cavities.

narrowly fusiform, 7–10 × 3–4 mm, scarious;

wings absent.

Abronia mellifera

Abronia argillosa

Phenology Flowering spring–fall. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Sandy soils, cold desert scrub, grasslands Clay soils, desert scrub to pinyon-juniper woodlands
Elevation 100-2000 m (300-6600 ft) 1300-1900 m (4300-6200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ID; OR; UT; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CO; UT
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 65. FNA vol. 4, p. 64.
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. fragrans, A. latifolia, A. macrocarpa, A. maritima, A. nana, A. pogonantha, A. turbinata, A. umbellata, A. villosa
A. alpina, A. ameliae, A. ammophila, A. angustifolia, A. bigelovii, A. bolackii, A. carletonii, A. elliptica, A. fragrans, A. latifolia, A. macrocarpa, A. maritima, A. mellifera, A. nana, A. pogonantha, A. turbinata, A. umbellata, A. villosa
Name authority Douglas ex Hooker: Bot. Mag. 56: plate 2879. (1829) S. L. Welsh & Goodrich: Great Basin Naturalist 40: 78, fig. 1. (1980)
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