Flora of North America species comparison

ascending or prostrate, profusely branched basally, radiating from rootstock, mostly 0.2–0.5 m.

ascending to prostrate, erect when young, or main stems ± erect, branched proximally, 0.1–0.6 m.

petiole 1/2 as long as to equaling blade;

blade rhombic-ovate or ovate to lanceolate, 1–2 × 0.5–1 cm, base tapering or cuneate, margins entire, plane or slightly undulate, apex subacute, obtuse, or retuse or shallowly emarginate, mucronulate.

petiole equaling or 1/2 as long as blade;

blade elliptic, oblanceolate to lanceolate, (0.5–)1–3(–3.5) × 0.3–2 cm, base tapering, margins entire, plane to slightly undulate, apex broadly rounded or emarginate.

of pistillate flowers linear, 0.5–1 mm, 1/2 as long as tepals.

of pistillate flowers keeled (only A. scleropoides and A. crassipes have keeled bracts), ovate-triangular, minute.

terminal, erect, compact, pyramidal panicles and also some axillary clusters, green or silvery green, occasionally tinged with red, leafless at least distally.

axillary clusters borne from base to top, axes thickened and inflated, becoming indurate at maturity (only in A. scleropoides and A. crassipes).

clustered at tips of inflorescences;

tepals 2–3;

stamens 2–3.

intermixed with pistillate;

tepals 5, membranaceous;

stamens 3.

tepals 2–3, narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, not clawed, equal or subequal, 1.2–2 mm, apex broadly acute;

style branches erect;

stigmas 3.

tepals 5, narrowly spatulate, slightly clawed, with expanded blade, equal or subequal, (1.2–)1.5–2.5 mm, apex acute to apiculate;

claws indurate at maturity;

style branches spreading;

stigmas 2–3.

very dark brown to black, 1–1.2 mm diam., shiny, filling only proximal portion of fruit.

dark brownish black to black, compressed-ovoid to broadly lenticular, 0.9–1.1 mm diam., shiny.

marked with 2(–3) green lines that intersect at apex and divide fruit into halves or quarters, slightly to distinctly inflated, ellipsoid, 2–3 mm, distinctly longer than tepals, smooth (in dry plants wrinkled or rugose), indehiscent.

orbicular to compressed-obovoid, 1.1–1.5 mm, shorter than tepals, smooth to tuberculate in distal 1/2, dehiscence regularly circumscissile.