Abronia mellifera |
Abronia fragrans |
|
|---|---|---|
|
honey scented sand-verbena, white sand-verbena |
fragrant verbena, fragrant white sand-verbena, heart's-delight, snowball sand-verbena |
|
| Habit | Plants perennial. | Plants perennial. |
| Stems | decumbent to ascending, much branched, elongate, glabrous or glandular-pubescent. |
procumbent to semierect, slightly to moderately branched, elongate, sometimes reddish at base and nodes, glandular-pubescent, viscid. |
| 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 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. |
| 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 linear-lanceolate to oval-ovate, 7–25 × 2–12 mm, scarious, glandular-puberulent to short villous; flowers 30–80. |
| Perianth | tube pale rose proximally to greenish distally, 15–25 mm, limb white, 7–12 mm diam. |
tube greenish to reddish purple, 10–25 mm, limb white, (2–)6–10 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. |
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. |
Abronia mellifera |
Abronia fragrans |
|
| Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering spring–fall. |
| Habitat | Sandy soils, cold desert scrub, grasslands | Dry sandy soils, scrub and grasslands |
| Elevation | 100-2000 m [300-6600 ft] | 400-2000 m [1300-6600 ft] |
| Distribution |
ID; OR; UT; WA; WY
|
AZ; CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua)
|
| Parent taxa | ||
| Sibling taxa | ||
| Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Bot. Mag. 56: plate 2879. (1829) | Nuttall ex Hooker: Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 5: 261. (1853) |
| Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 65. | FNA vol. 4, p. 63. |
| Web links | ||