Abronia turbinata |
Abronia nana |
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annual abronia, trans montane abronia, trans montane sand verbena |
dwarf sand verbena |
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Habit | Plants annual, infrequently perennial. | Plants perennial, acaulescent or nearly so, usually cespitose. | ||||
Stems | decumbent to ascending, much branched, elongate, reddish at least basally, glandular-pubescent, rarely glabrous or viscid-pubescent. |
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Leaves | petiole 1–4.5 cm; blade broadly ovate to orbiculate, 1–5 × 0.5–3 cm, margins entire or ± repand and undulate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely glandular-pubescent. |
petiole 1–5 cm; blade elliptic to lanceolate, shortly ovate, or oblong-ovate, (0.4–)0.5–2.5 × (0.2–)0.4–1.2 cm, less than 3 times as long as wide, margins entire or ± repand and undulate, surfaces glabrous or glandular-pubescent. |
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Inflorescences | peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 3–10 × 1–5 mm, papery, puberulent to densely glandular-pubescent; flowers 15–35. |
bracts lanceolate to ovate, 4–9 × 2–7 mm, scarious, glandular-puberulent, often minutely so; flowers 15–25. |
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Perianth | tube greenish to coral pink, 6–18 mm, limb white to pale pink, 5–8 mm diam. |
tube pale pink, 8–30 mm, limb white to pink, 6–10 mm diam. |
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Fruits | winged, turbinate, 3–8 × 3–6 mm, coriaceous, apex broadly tapered to prominent beak; wings (2–)5 (when 2, folded together) truncate distally with conspicuous dilations, cavities extending throughout. |
obovate to obcordate in profile, 6–10 × 5–7 mm, scarious, apex low and broadly conic; wings 5, without dilations, without cavities. |
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Abronia turbinata |
Abronia nana |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy soils, desert scrub | |||||
Elevation | 900-2500 m (3000-8200 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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AZ; CA; CO; NV; UT
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Abronia nana is a highly variable species. Perhaps contraction of the range of A. nana during the Pleistocene left isolated populations that have since diverged. This is especially apparent on the southern edge of the range of the species. In northeastern Arizona, densely tufted plants with very small blades are similar to short-leaved plants of A. bigelovii from north-central New Mexico. Based on the fruits, the taxon described as Abronia nana var. harrisii S. L. Welsh is A. elliptica. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 66. | FNA vol. 4, p. 69. | ||||
Parent taxa | Nyctaginaceae > Abronia | Nyctaginaceae > Abronia | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Torrey ex S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 285, plate 31, figs. 1–5, 8, 9. (1871) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 14: 294. (1879) | ||||
Web links |